THE 

LAST DAYS OF ALEXANDER, 

AND THE 

FIRST DAYS OF NICHOLAS, 



(EMPERORS OF RUSSIA). 

4 



By ROBERT LEE, M.D. F.R.S. 

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIAN S. 




LONDON: 

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 

1854. 



» Li U- 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The following pages contain the substance of a 
J ournal which I kept during a residence of two 
years in Russia. The original MSS. are still in 
my possession. A few pages of the first portion, 
"The Last Days of the Emperor Alexander/' 
were published in the "Athenaeum" nine years 
ago. 

ROBERT LEE, M.D. 



PAET I. 



THE LAST DAYS 

OF 

THE EMPEEOE ALEXANDER 



THE LAST DAYS 

OF 

THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



On the 5th of November, 1824, I arrived 
at Cologne, on my way from London to Odessa, 
to join the family of Count Woronzow, in the 
capacity of physician to his Excellency. The 
weather had been very tempestuous during the 
whole journey from England; and torrents of rain 
had fallen. The Rhine had overflowed its banks 
to a greater extent than had ever before been 
remembered. From the cathedral and spire of 
the town-house the inundation presented a 
striking and melancholy spectacle. The whole 
level country was covered with water; and the 
river with the wrecks it was floating away. 
The following day, many miles before reaching 

B 



2 



THE LAST DAYS OP 



Andernach, the road was inundated by the Rhine, 
and it was necessary to embark in a boat and be 
towed up the stream by a number of men on the 
shore. The rope by which it was dragged against 
the rapid current frequently became entangled 
among the chimneys of houses and tops of trees, 
when suddenly getting loose, the boat ran great 
risk of being upset, to the extreme danger of the 
passengers. The night had begun to set in long 
before this dangerous voyage was completed, and 
the river was becoming more and more rapid, 
rushing against our boat with increasing violence. 
The darkness had increased so much that every 
object around us had become indistinct and our 
situation truly perilous; when, the full moon 
unexpectedly rising above the mountains of the 
Rhine, our apprehensions of danger were re- 
moved and our feelings of anxiety lost in ad- 
miration of the magnificence of the scenery 
around us. 

Having reached Coblentz about midnight, I 
crossed the river with difficulty the following 
afternoon to Ehrenbreitstein ; from whence my 
journey was continued to Frankfort without in- 
terruption. I saw from a hill between Limburg 
and Wiesbaden, to a distance as far as the eye 
could reach, the Rhine and the Maine, like two 
arms of the sea covering the whole of the flat 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



3 



country; and it was estimated that no less than 
50,000 persons were ruined by this extensive 
inundation. Passing through Wurtzburg and 
Nuremberg, I reached Ratisbon on the 15th of 
November. The wind blew and the rain fell 
without ceasing during the whole of my journey 
from Frankfort. The Danube had risen as much 
above its ordinary level as the Rhine, and was 
rushing with its characteristic impetuosity, fear- 
fully increased at this time, through all the fifteen 
arches of the old bridge of Ratisbon. It ap- 
peared to me surprising that this structure, which 
had been built seven hundred years before, should 
be able to withstand the force of such a mighty 
torrent. 

A frightful and disastrous inundation also took 
place at this time at St. Petersburg^ of which 
the following description has been furnished me 
by a medical friend, then residing at St. Peters- 
burgh : — 

" The autumnal equinoctial gales most gene- 
rally prevail at St. Petersburg from the south- 
west, by which the waters of the Gulf of Finland 
and Neva are much increased. So it was in 
1824; and for some weeks the wind continued 
from nearly the same quarter. The night of the 
18th of November was very stormy; and at day- 
light of the 19th it blew a hurricane from 

B 2 



THE LAST DATS OF 



WSW, by which the stream of the river — 
the upper part at least — was reversed, and the 
waters, running higher than ever remembered, 
soon caused the lower parts of the city and neigh- 
bourhood of the embouchure to be inundated. 
At nine o'clock in the morning I attempted to 
cross the Voskresenskoy Bridge of boats, on my 
way to the General Xaval Hospital, on the 
Wyborside, but was unable owing to the great- 
elevation. I then paid some professional visits ; 
and at eleven called on Prince NarishMri, who 
had already given orders to remove the furniture 
from his lower apartments, the water then being 
above the level of the Fontanka Canal, opposite 
to his residence. From this time the rise was 
rapid: and at half-past eleven, when I returned 
to my house, in the Great Millione, the water 
was gushing upwards through the gratings of the 
sewers, filling the streets and court-yards with 
which every house is provided. A servant took 
me on his back from the droshky, my horses at 
that time being above their knees, and conveyed 
me to the landing of the staircase. The wind 
now blew in awful gusts; and the noise of the 
tempest with the cries of the people in the streets 
was terrific. It was not long ere boats were 
seen in the streets, with vast quantities of fire- 
wood and other articles floating about. As there 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 







was an ascent to my coach-house and stables, 
the water there attained but to four feet in depth; 
in most, however, it was necessary to get both 
horses and cows up to the landing-places of the 
stairs in order to save them, though the loss of 
animals was great. Now and then a horse was 
seen swimming across from one pavement to 
another, the deepest part of the streets of 
St. Petersburo;h being; in the centre. The num- 
ber of rats drowned on this occasion was incon- 
ceivable; and of dogs and cats not a few. The 
crisis seemed to be from one to three in the after- 
noon, at which hour the wind having veered 
round a couple of points to the northward, the 
waters began to abate; and by four o^clock the 
tops of the iron-posts, three feet in height, by the 
sides of the pavement, made their appearance. 
The reflux of the water was tremendous, causing 
much damage, and carrying off fire-wood, boards, 
lumber, and all sorts of rubbish, with various 
articles of furniture. From the commencement 
of the inundation the report of the signal cannon, 
fired first at the Galley haven, at the entrance of 
the river, then at the Admiralty dockyard, and 
lastly at the fortress, was continued at intervals 
as a warning to the inhabitants, and added not a 
little to the horror of the scene. At five o^clock 



g 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



persons were seen on the pavements carrying 
lanterns, and the rattling of equipages was heard 
an hour afterwards. The depth of water in the 
different parts of the city varied from four to nine 
and ten feet; but along the border of the Gulf of 
Finland, and especially in the low suburb of the 
Galleyhaven before alluded to, the depth was from 
fourteen to eighteen feet, and many of the small 
wooden houses built on piles were carried away, 
inmates and all. A few were floated up the 
Neva, rocking about with poor creatures clinging 
on the roof. Some of these perished; others 
were taken off, at a great risk, by boats from the 
Admiralty yard, which had been ordered out by 
the express command of His Imperial Majesty, 
who stood during the greatest part of the day on 
the balcony of the Winter Palace, giving the 
necessary orders. The government ironworks^ 
near the shore of the gulf, and two miles distant, 
were almost annihilated, and the loss of life was 
great. This establishment was afterwards re- 
moved to the left and elevated bank of the Neva, 
five versts above the city. Vessels of various 
kinds, boats, timber, &c. floated over the parapets 
of the quays on the banks of the Neva and canals, 
into the streets and squares, and were for the 
most part afterwards broken up for fuel. As the 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



7 



lower part of most houses in St. Petersburgh is 
occupied by shopkeepers and artizans of various 
descriptions, so these unfortunate people sus- 
tained much loss, and until their dwellings were 
considered to be sufficiently dried by means of 
stoves, found refuge and maintenance with their 
neighbours in the upper apartments. A German 
shoemaker with his family lived below me, and in 
this way became my guests for the space of eight 
days. The wind continued providentially to get 
round to the north during the night of the 1 9th, 
and a smart frost taking place on the following 
morning, rendered the roads and streets extremely 
slippery, but doing much good by the dryness it 
produced. On the 20th, the Emperor Alexander, 
ever benevolent and humane, visited those parts 
of the city and suburbs most afflicted by this 
catastrophe; and in person bestowed alms and con- 
solation to the sufferers, for the most part of the 
lower classes, and in every way afforded such 
relief, both then and afterwards, as won for him 
the still greater love and admiration of his people 
and of the foreign residents in St. Petersburgh. 
To assist the Emperor's benevolent views, a sub- 
scription was entered into, and the British resi- 
dents came forward, as usual, with their wonted 
liberality. As nothing official was published as 
to the actual loss of lives on this melancholy occa* 



8 



THE LAST J) AYS OF 



sion, it is impossible to state otherwise than by- 
report. The authorities were shy on this subject; 
but from what information I could obtain, twelve 
or fifteen hundred persons must have perished. 
Owing to the damp and unwholesome state of the 
lower parts of the houses and cellars, the mor- 
tality during the subsequent winter was nearly 
doubled, from typhus chiefly, as also from affec- 
tions of the lungs ; and many dated their rheu- 
matic pains and various other maladies to the 
sufferings they then underwent." 

The effects of this calamity were still visible 
more than a year after, when I visited St. Peters- 
burgh, subsequent to the death of the Emperor 
Alexander. The red painted lines on the houses 
still remained to mark the height to which the 
waters had risen. In the inundation of 1752 ? the 
waters of the Neva rose eleven feet ; and in that 
of 1777, the most extensive and destructive that 
had ever before occurred, they rose fourteen feet 
above the ordinary level of the river. 

The Danube and the surrounding country were 
covered by a dense fog during my journey from 
Ratisbon to Vienna, where I arrived on the 21st 
of November, 1824, and set out for the Russian 
frontier on the 29th. The same evening I reached 
Briinn, the capital of Moravia, where I remained 
till the 2nd of December, the anniversary of the 



THE EMPEROS ALEXANDER. 9 

battle of Austerlitz, which was fought near this 
town, nineteen years before. Here I met an 
Austrian cavalry officer, on his way from Italy to 
Gallicia, who was in the battle and gave a vivid 
description of it. He said it commenced between 
eight and nine o'clock in the morning, and was 
nearly over by mid-day, and that in the very short 
space of four hours 40,000 men were either killed, 
wounded, or made prisoners. It was the first 
battle in which the Emperor Alexander had been 
present ; and from an eminence near the field he 
saw a great part of his army destroyed and the 
remainder retreating in confusion upon Austerlitz, 
pursued by the enemy. His troops fought, I was 
assured, with the most determined bravery, and 
that the victory which the Trench gained was due 
entirely to the transcendent military genius of 
Napoleon. In the Castle of Spielberg, above the 
town of Brunn, Count Gonfalonieri and other 
nobles of Lombardy were at that time state 
prisoners ; and I was told that they were fettered 
with irons and immured in dungeons. I went to 
the gates of the castle, but the sentinels would not 
permit me to approach them. Having then 
recently visited Italy, I was interested in their 
fate. 

I continued my route through Poland by Cra- 
cow and Lemberg to Brody ? and there entering 



10 



THE LAST DAYS OP 



Russia, traversed the Ukraine to Odessa/ where 
I arrived on the 8th of January , 1825. The 
roads were beyond all description miserable, the 
mud being half frozen. The people in the towns 
and villages in the most deplorable state of igno- 
rance, filth, and misery. The winter soon set in 
with great severity ; the Black Sea on that coast 
was frozen and the communication with Constan- 
tinople and the Mediterranean entirely cut off. 
At the end of January a great quantity of snow 
fell and lay, both on the land and sea, till the 
commencement of April, when the ice floated 
away to the south, and vegetation began to appear 
on the steppe. Odessa, which had no existence 
half a century before this period, now contained 
upwards of 36,000 inhabitants, and carried on an 
extensive commerce with Turkey and the coun- 
tries in the south of Europe. In the streets of 
the town were seen Greeks, Jews, Russians, 
Poles, Germans, French, Americans, and English, 
in the costumes of their respective nations. The 
Governor-General, Count Woronzow, was sur- 
rounded with military and civil officers, who had 
either distinguished themselves in the public ser- 
vice, or were eminent for their rank and talents. 
The dreary and monotonous winter months of 
Scythia passed quickly and agreeably away in the 
society of those who had served in the Persian, 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 11 



Turkish, and French wars ; and who had wit- 
nessed both the burning of Moscow and the cap- 
ture of Paris. Society at Odessa seemed as free 
and unrestrained as in London ; and there was 
nothing apparent to a stranger from which it 
could at this time be suspected, that a conspiracy 
existed to destroy the Emperor Alexander and 
subvert the government of the country. At a 
public ball, however, a circumstance occurred to 
me one night, which arrested my attention and 
excited a suspicion that the affairs of the country 
were not in so quiet a state as the surface indi- 
cated. After conversing for a time with Count 
de Witt, Prince Serge Volhonsky whispered in 
my ear, * e Take care what you say, he is the 
Emperor's spy," which afterwards was actually 
proved to be the case. 

I was informed, that at this time an army of 
100,000 men was stationed along the Pruth, com- 
manded by General Sebanieff, to whom I was 
introduced. On Saturday, the 7th March, 1825, 
in conversing with the Baron Brunow on the 
present state of Turkey and the probable conse- 
quences of the war between the Greeks and 
Turks, he said a plan had been suggested to him 
by Monsr. Stourdza, which he thought original and 
entitled to attention. The Baron Brunow stated 
it to be as follows: u Considering now the affairs of 



12 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



Turkey, and as it is a matter of consequence to 
know what is to become of it, and to prevent all 
the difficulties which can arise out of that concern, 
Monsr. Stourdza proposes a plan which he thinks 
will combine every interest. That plan is, that 
the provinces which compose now what is called 
European Turkey, should be divided into three 
parts. The first composed of the Principalities 
of Moldavia, Wallachia, and all those countries 
which surround the Danube, called formerly Bul- 
garia. The second part composed of those coun- 
tries near the frontiers of Austria, Servia, Dal- 
matian and Bosnia. The third part composed of 
the Morea, those countries which formed Greece 
Proper, and all its islands. These three parts 
should be quite independent States and put under 
their own governments ; governments nearly the 
same as now. These are merely under the pro- 
tection of Turkey now, and have constitutions of 
their own; Moldavia and Wallachia being governed 
by the Hospodars, and Servia by the Princes of 
Servia. These three parts to be maintained 
should be placed under the protection of the 
three great powers of Europe, viz., the first under 
the protection of Russia, the second under Austria, 
and the third under England ; but all of them 
being under the common guarantee of all those 
countries, that all should be interested in main- 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



13 



taining the independence of each. Now a parti- 
cular importance is attached to Constantinople, as 
it is an intermedium of much of the commerce of 
Europe, of the Mediterranean, and Black Sea, 
All the Powers are equally interested in the in- 
dependence of that important commercial place; 
and it is proposed that it should be constituted a 
free city, or port libre, similar to the political 
existence which has been granted to Cracovie 
according to the treaty of Vienna; like Hamburgh, 
Frankfort, and other free cities. Constantinople, 
considered as the centre of the Ecclesiastical 
power of the Greek Church, must be quite inde- 
pendent. Every one knows that Turkey cannot 
exist much longer ; and that it would be better to 
prevent all the evils which must arise by such an 
arrangement, than to abandon it to the ambition 
of any power, or to make it the cause of a general 
disturbance in Europe. This is nothing similar 
to the division of Poland, because it would not be 
a material division, but a moral one. The protec- 
tion given to these countries has no other end but 
that of maintaining and supporting their indi- 
vidual liberty, and their political independence. 
By this general agreement that large part of 
Europe would enjoy the liberties the people are 
entitled to, without giving any jealousy to the 



14 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



neighbouring powers ; and without giving any- 
additional strength to Russia, Austria, and Eng- 
land, the balance of the European powers will 
be preserved. The Mahometans may remain; but 
they must not murder Christians and spread the 
plague over the world." 

This is copied verbatim from my diary (1825), 
and also the following observation : 

" At present I do not believe, from the different 
conversations I have had with Russians here, that 
their ambition is directed so much to India as 
to Turkey. Their attention for the present is 
rivetted upon Turkey, and they consider England 
as the only power exerting an overwhelming influ- 
ence against their schemes ; and when they can 
find occasion with safety to themselves, I have 
no doubt we shall find them our most bitter ene- 
mies. That the attention of the Russian Govern- 
ment is also directed to the East is proved by the 
fact of their now having a number of surveyors 
employed in preparing maps of all the countries 
between the Caspian and Aral seas, and also the 
course of the Oxus. 

During the summer I visited Kief, and the 
greater part of the country extending between 
the Dnieper and the Dniester, which was at that 
time suffering from the ravages of locusts. On 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



15 



the 8th July, 1825, 1 rode with Baron Franc five 
versts from Biala Cerkiew to see the locusts. We 
found upwards of 300 peasants engaged in de- 
stroying them. They had dug a ditch across the 
steppe three miles long, and about two feet in 
depth. There were millions of these insects upon 
the ground ; they were said to move with pecu- 
liar vivacity with the south wind and when the 
sun was shining, and to travel only during the 
day. The boys and girls were stationed along the 
opposite margin to prevent the locusts from crawl- 
ing up and passing to the other side. In this trench 
there were deep holes dug, into which the locusts 
were swept ; and slaves were raising them from 
these with wooden spades into sacks held by 
others. So many of these measures were required 
daily from each band of slaves upon the steppes ; 
and from the dull, sluggish, and inert manner in 
which they were occupied, it did not appear to 
me that they had a very heavy task to perform. 
On the 10th July I visited them again; and 
though vast numbers had been destroyed, myriads 
remained. Upwards of 400 peasants were now 
at work. A more wretched, ill-clothed, misera- 
ble race, I never saw ; lodging in holes in the 
ground, worse covered than our common vagrants 
and beggars, and men were behind them with 
whips which I saw used. I rode back in a 



16 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



state of melancholy, hoping and praying fervently 
that the following prediction of the poet might 
soon be fulfilled : — 

lc Where barb'rous hordes on Scythian mountains roam 
Truth, mercy, freedom, yet shall rind a home : 
Where'er degraded nature bleeds and pines. 
From Guinea's coast to Sibir's dreary mines. 
Truth shall pervade th' uafathom'd darkness there. 
And light the dreadful features of despair." 

The locusts appeared in the Crimea in 1819, 
and had continued in it until 1823. — that year the 
crops were completely devoured by them. From 
thence they spread westward as far as Bessarabia, 
and to the north upwards of 300 miles from the 
sea; and in the autumn of 1824, their eggs had 
had been deposited in the earth, not only in these 
fertile provinces, but throughout the whole tract 
of country extending eastward from the Dnieper 
beyond the Don. to the Caucasus. I had seen 
their ova during the winter dug out of the 
earth, when they presented the appearance of 
clusters of small yellow sacs or bags. In the 
month of May the young ones began to issue from 
the ground in myriads, at which time they did 
not exceed the fifth of an inch in length, and 
could onlv crawl alona' the surface. In a few 
weeks they had greatly enlarged; and could leap 
considerable distances, like grasshoppers. By the 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 17 

end of June they were able to fly a short way ; 
and before the end of July they mounted high 
into the air and took long flights. At first they 
were of a blackish hue and their heads were dis- 
proportionately large, but afterwards they became 
of a clear brown colour, with wings of grey or 
rosy red. In some places they covered the ground 
completely and were in a state of rest, but in 
others they were going slowly hefore the breeze, 
and resembled at a distance a sheet of gently 
flowing water. Around Novomirgorod, in tra- 
velling from Biala Cerkiew, near Kief, to Odessa, 
the road was deeply covered with them, and they 
rose as our carriages approached, with a peculiar 
rattling noise, and in such numbers that they 
filled the air like flakes of snow in a storm They 
swarmed in the streets of Odessa, in the vine- 
yards, and on the surrounding steppe, at the 
beginning of August, and masses of the dead 
bodies of those drowned in the sea, covered the 
shore. There were everywhere two distinct 
varieties of these insects; one about three inches, 
and the other half of that length. The first kind 
was observed to bear a much greater proportion 
to the other near the sea,, than at a remote dis- 
tance. There was a third variety of a green colour, 
but it was extremely rare, and in some places 
wholly wanting. In the neighbourhood of Odessa, 

c 



18 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



on the steppe, I observed vast numbers of a pecu- 
liar species of Sphex, or Ichneumon fly, employed 
in killing and burying the locusts. The fly in- 
sidiously sprung upon the locust, applying its long 
and powerful legs around the body, so that the 
victim could not expand its wings and escape. 
When exhausted with fruitless efforts to fly, the 
sphex applied the strong nippers with which its 
mouth is furnished, around the neck of the locust, 
and thrusting the dart with which it is also pro- 
vided, between the head and body, in a few seconds 
deprived the locust of life. This dart I found to 
consist of two sharp spears, with a small tube 
between them, but whether connected or not with 
a poisonous sac was not ascertained. The fly 
remained for some time attached to the body of 
the locust after it was dead, probably for the pur- 
pise of depositing its ova within it. The sphex 
afterwards dragged the locust into a small grave 
it had previously dug in the ground for its recep- 
tion, and covered it carefully with earth. The 
ultimate extinction of the locusts here obviously 
would be effected by this means, if none other 
were provided by nature for the purpose. The 
locusts, I was informed some years after, had en- 
tirely disappeared from these extensive steppes. 

On the 11th of August, 1825, his Excellency 
Count Woronzow and his suite embarked at Odessa 



THli EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 19 

on board Admiral Greig' s yacht, and sailed for the 
Crimea. The Counts F. Pahlen, Olizar, Potoski, 
and the Baron de Brunow (afterwards Russian 
minister in England) were among the number. The 
following evening we saw the land near KosiofF. 
At two o'clock on the morning of Sunday the 16th, 
we were off Sevastopol, in the midst of the Black 
Sea fleet, consisting of eight ships of the line and 
three large frigates. We went on board the Ad- 
miraFs ship, and after examining every part, heard 
divine service performed in the chapel, where all 
the sailors who could be spared were present. 
After this a sham fight took place between the 
three frigates and the yacht. Admiral Greig then 
formed his own ship and seven others of the line 
into close order of battle, with all their sails ex- 
panded, and many tremendous broadsides were 
fired. We afterwards dined w T ith the Admiral, 
Vice- Admiral, and Captains of the fleet. We 
parted from Admiral Greig at sunset and made 
all sail for YoursoufF, on the south coast. The 
breeze was favourable, but towards morning it 
gradually died away, the vessel being about ten 
miles from the point called Criu Metopon, where 
the temple of Diana is supposed to have stood in 
the days of Iphigenia. During the 1 7th the wea- 
ther was beautiful, there was not a breath of air, 
and the sea was like a placid lake. The following 

c 2 



20 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



day, when opposite Jalta, the scene suddenly 
changed, by the occurrence of a violent gale from 
the east, which drove the vessel back and com- 
pelled us to take refuge in a bay near Balaclava. 
We passed the night at a village called Laspi, 
belonging to General Poitiers, all the inhabitants 
of which were suffering from fever and in a 
wretched condition. On the 19th, taking Tartar 
horses, we rode through the valley of [Baidar and 
crossed the Ayla mountains, by the passage of 
Foros, to the south coast; along which we passed 
eastward by Simeis, Aloupka, Musghor, Derekuy, 
Nikta, Masandra, and Orianda, to Yoursouff, the 
seat of Count Woronzow. There are probably no 
scenes in Europe which surpass in magnificence 
and beauty those around Aloupka, Massandra, 
and Orianda. u If there exist on earth a spot 
which may be described as a terrestrial paradise/' 
says Dr. Clarke, " it is that which intervenes 
between Kutchukoy and Sudac, on the south 
coast of the Crimea. Protected by encircling 
alps from every cold and blighting wind, and only 
open to those breezes which are wafted across the 
sea from the south, the inhabitants enjoy every 
advantage of climate and situation. From the 
mountains continual streams of crystal water pour 
down upon the gardens, in which many species of 
fruit known in the rest of Europe, and many that 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



21 



are not, attain the highest perfection. Neither 
unwholesome exhalations, nor chilling winds, nor 
venomous insects, nor hostile neighbours, infest 
their blissful territory." 

During the month of September, 1825, the 
whole population of the Crimea between the moun- 
tains and the sea, all the inhabitants of "this ter- 
restrial paradise," were in a very sickly condition ; 
and in the villages along the coast between Your- 
souff and Simeis, I saw and treated more than a 
hundred cases of intermittent and remittent fever. 
Many who had been suffering for months had en- 
largement of the liver and spleen, with jaundice 
and dropsy. The weather, during the whole time 
I remained on the south coast of the Crimea, was 
delightful; and none of those sudden and violent 
changes were observed which so frequently occur 
in all the countries situated along the northern 
shore of the Black Sea. There could be little 
doubt that the fever which then prevailed on the 
coast and in the interior of the Crimea, was pro- 
duced by noxious exhalations from the earth. 

After visiting all the most interesting places in 
the Crimea, I embarked on board Admiral Greig's 
yacht at Sevastopol on the 23rd September, 
and returned to Odessa, with Count F. Pahlen, 
on the 1st of October. Count Woronzow at the 
same time set out for Taganrog, to meet the 



22 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



Emperor Alexander, who had arrived there with 
the Empress a short time before, with the inten- 
tion of spending the winter on the shores of the 
sea of Azoff. Before reaching Odessa, Count 
Pahlen was seized with severe shivering, head- 
ache, and the other characteristic symptoms of 
bilious remittent fever. The attack was far more 
violent and dangerous than in any of the cases 
which had before fallen under my observation; and 
he narrowly escaped with his life, Mr. Rose, an 
English gentleman, who had been in the Crimea 
with us, was also attacked after our return to 
Odessa, and died from effusion into the brain. 
The health of a considerable number of those 
who had been on the south coast of the Crimea at 
the same time, suffered severely for some months 
after; and in a few fever appeared in a severe form 
early the following spring. There was evidence to 
prove that almost all of us had suffered from malaria. 

On the 14th of October, 1825 (o.s.) at Odessa, 
I received a letter from Count Woronzow at Ta- 
ganrog, informing me of the Emperor's deter- 
mination to visit the Crimea, and requesting me 
to meet him at Bereslaw, on the Dnieper. I 
accordingly left Odessa in the afternoon of the 
same day, with General Bashmakoff, Messrs. 
Marini and Artemieff. We arrived at Nicolaef in 
the afternoon of the 15th, and remained a few 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



23 



hours with Admiral Greig, who had just returned 
from Taganrog. It was a clear, beautiful night, 
the road was excellent, and we reached Bereslaw 
the following morning, at seven o'clock, where we 
remained during the day. This is a large town 
on the west bank of the Dnieper, which does not 
differ in appearance from the other towns in the 
south of Russia. There w r ere many shops or 
bazaars in it, full of every kind of merchandize. 
Great numbers of wagons laden with salt from 
the Crimea, were then passing through ; and large 
bodies of troops marching to join the army on 
the Turkish frontiers. The country around was 
extremely fertile, but the locusts had committed 
great havoc the year before; the peasants and 
landed proprietors being in a state of the greatest 
distress. We left Bereslaw in the afternoon, for 
the isthmus of Perecop, and after passing over an 
an extensive plain of sand like the Llandes near 
the Pyrenees, we entered the Crimea and spent 
the night at the German colony of Nahitchwan. 
Here all was order, cleanliness, and comfort; the 
population rapidly increasing, and additional 
grants of land required. On quitting these intel- 
ligent, happy people, the following morning, we 
were not long in coming among the Nogay Tartars, 
where all was ignorance, poverty, and wretched- 
ness. Light and darkness, civilization and bar- 



24 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



barism, were here almost in contact. We remained 
two nights and a day at Sirnpheropol, where 
I had the satisfaction of giving professional aid 
to the daughter of Count Rostopschin, a name 
which will be preserved through all ages in the 
annals of Russia. 

On the 20th we left Sirnpheropol early in the 
morning, and passing rapidly over the steppe ex- 
tending between the town and the mountains, 
crossed these in a caleche, by the new road which 
had lately been made to connect the shore of the 
Crimea with the interior. Many of the soldiers 
employed in completing this arduous work ap- 
peared sickly and depressed. Upwards of one 
hundred out of five hundred had suffered from 
fever during the autumn; but in none had the 
disease assumed a dangerous form. No less than 
a thousand soldiers had been employed in this 
important work the year before, and compara- 
tively few of them, it was reported, had suffered 
from the effects of fever. The face of the country 
had changed since our former visit to the Crimea. 
The woods along the Salgir and on the Chatyr- 
Dagh, were stripped of their leaves, though on 
entering the valley of Alushta the trees were still 
green. From the Isthmus of Perecop to Your- 
souff, where we arrived on the 20th, preparations 
were being made for the reception of the Emperor: 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



25 



the roads were being repaired; and all the cottages 
and houses in the line were being cleaned and 
whitewashed. The principal Tartar of the village 
of Yoursouff had been suffering severely from in- 
termittent fever for several weeks, but the fits were 
speedily arrested by the calomel and sulphate of 
quinine which I administered to him. This latter 
remedy, which had never before been employed 
in the fevers of the Crimea, often stopped their 
course so quickly, that some of the ignorant Tar- 
tars were disposed to attribute the striking effects 
to supernatural influence. 

The following morning we set out for Aloupka. 
It was like a summer's day in England, the ther- 
mometer in the shade being 17° of Reaumur. 
The tops of the mountains were, however, covered 
with dense clouds. The road along the sea-shore 
to Orianda from Yoursouff never appeared to me 
so beautiful before; and I could not pass Nikita 
and Masandra, without halting to admire the 
glorious scenery. The woods had lost a part of 
their verdure, but there were still many of the 
trees as green as during the autumn. The wild 
vine, which climbs to the tops of the highest 
trees, and the leaves of which were then of a 
deep red colour, formed a striking feature in the 
scene. The walnut and fig-trees were still fresh 
and green. At Aloupka, in the evening, we 



26 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



walked around the gardens, the most romantic in 
the Crimea, where preparations were being made 
for planting forty lemon-trees in the open air, 
which had been imported the previous year from 
Italy; and one of them, which had been exposed 
in the middle of the garden to the intense frost 
of the preceding winter, was in a flourishing state. 
We returned to the Tartar house which was pre- 
pared for the Emperor. Boards had been placed 
around the front of it, and whitewashed. The 
walls of the two chambers for His Majesty's ac- 
commodation, had been surrounded with a coarse 
white linen cloth, and a very neat bed prepared. 
There were two chairs, a table, and a couch; and 
newly glazed windows had been put in. In that 
climate one could not have desired a better habi- 
tation for a night, though it was a common Tartar 
cottage. 

We returned to Yoursouff on the 23rd, and on 
the following day one of the Emperor's couriers 
arrived, and arranged all the apartments in the 
house for His Majesty and attendants. On the 
25th, the Emperor arrived at Simpheropol. He 
went to the service in the cathedral the fol- 
lowing morning, and he arrived at Yoursouff 
about four o' clock in the afternoon, accompanied 
by General Diebitch, Sir James Wylie, and a 
few attendants. When he dismounted from his 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 27 



horse in front of the house at YoursoufF, Count 
Woronzow, his aides -de-canip, secretaries, and 
myself, were standing in a line to receive him. 

Though apparently active, and in the prime 
and vigour of life, the Emperor stooped a little 
in walking, and seemed rather inclined to corpu- 
lency. He was dressed in a blue military surtout, 
with epaulettes, and had nothing to distinguish 
him from any general officer. He shook Count 
Woronzow by the hand, and afterwards warmly 
saluted him, first on one cheek and then on the 
other. He afterwards shook hands with us all, 
and then inquired of me particularly about the 
health of the Count's children at Biala Cerkiew, 
whom I had seen not long before. He then in- 
quired if I had visited the south coast of the 
Crimea during the autumn, and if so, how I was 
pleased with it. Looking up to the mountains 
above YoursoufF, and then to the calm sea, 
upon which the sun was shining, His Majesty 
exclaimed, " Was there ever such magnificent 
scenery !" I replied, that the coast of Italy, be- 
between Genoa and Nice, presented the only 
scenery I had ever witnessed that could be com- 
pared to it — a part of Italy which His Majesty 
stated he had never visited. 

I set out from Yoursouff on the morning of the 
26th of October, before the Emperor, and rode 



28 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



along the coast to Aloupka. It was a sultry day, 
and the scenery was rendered still more interest- 
ing to me than on all former occasions, in conse- 
quence of the Tartars having come from all parts 
of the Crimea to see the Emperor, on his way 
from Yoursouff to Aloupka, where he arrived 
about four o'clock. I was informed that a Tartar 
female complained to His Majesty, at Orianda, of 
her having been beaten and ill-treated by the 
superintendent; when the offender was ordered 
to appear before His Majesty, he threw himself 
upon his knees and implored forgiveness. Alex- 
ander ordered him to be arrested, and said, with 
great severity, that it was an eternal disgrace to 
injure any female, more especially one in her situ- 
ation, she being pregnant. The Emperor was 
greatly pleased with Orianda ; and immediately 
determined to purchase the estate from Count 
Kisseloff and build a palace there. Before com- 
ing to Aloupka, he visited the vineyards at Mar- 
tyan, and the Princess Galitzin at Musghor, 
distributing liberally to the poor in his way. 

Count Woronzow, General Diebitch, Sir James 
Wylie, and myself, with one or two others, had 
the honour of dining with the Emperor on this 
occasion, the last day he was destined to enjoy. 
The Emperor addressed himself chiefly to Count 
Woronzow, who was seated next to His Majesty, 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



29 



and the greater part of the conversation was 
carried on in French and English. Again his 
Majesty recurred to the beauties of Orianda, and 
thanked the Count for the acquisition he had 
that day made for him. He expressed the strong 
displeasure he felt at the cruel treatment the poor 
Tartar woman had received from the superin- 
tendent, and ordered that he should be severely 
punished. The death of Mr. Fondane, the gover- 
nor of Kertche, from consumption, had occurred 
not long before, and when this was mentioned 
the Emperor said, he thought it would be possible 
to combine the offices of the governors of Kertche 
and Theodosi a, as the government of Taganrog 
was much more extensive than the two combined. 
Count Woronzow observed, that there would be 
a difficulty in effecting this, because a great 
jealousy existed between the inhabitants of the 
two towns, which would be increased by the 
change. The Emperor, on the contrary, thought 
it might be the means of reconciling them to each 
other. The Count said that the people of Theo- 
dosia would never be reconciled to it : that they 
would consider themselves placed in a situa- 
tion inferior to that of Kertche, and that, in his 
opinion, it was not advisable. The Emperor still 
urged the practicability of the measure, which he 
said he had fully considered; and the Count 



30 



THE LAST BATS OF 



acquiesced in His Majesty's decision, by admit- 
ting that no great harm could result from the 
experiment. The Emperor then made many in- 
quiries respecting the wealth and respectability of 
the merchants of Theodosia, to which such answers 
were given as appeared entirely satisfactory. 

There were oysters at dinner, and a small worm 
was adhering to the shell of one presented to His 
Majesty. This was shown to Sir James Wylie, 
who said it was quite common and harmless ; and 
he reminded the Emperor of a circumstance which 
had occurred to them at the Congress of Verona. 
A person at Venice had then sent to the Emperor 
to intreat that he would abstain from the use of 
oysters, as there was a poisonous marine worm or 
insect in them. This led the conversation to the 
insects of the Crimea and Ukraine, of which I 
had made a considerable collection, and the Em- 
peror inquired of me if there were scorpions, 
scolopendras, and tarantulas in the Crimea. I 
said scorpions of large size were not uncommon : 
and that at Musghor, during our former visit, we 
found a scorpion of great strength in the apart- 
ment where we passed the night, but that it was 
harmless. Scolopendras of great length I had 
often seen around Odessa, but not in the Crimea ; 
nor tarantulas, although, as I had been informed, 
they were not very rare. I heard of no instance 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 31 



during the autumn in which they had inflicted 
any injury by their bites or stings. He said, he 
supposed they were the same as in Italy, and 
then alluded to the dance for the cure of the bite 
of the tarantula. Sir James TVylie reminded 
His Majesty of the scorpion which was found in 
his bed at Verona, and of the prescription which 
he had then written for the cure of the bite of the 
carbonari. 

Then followed a long discussion on homoe- 
opathy, and the peculiar views of Hahnemann, 
which were at that time greatly in vogue, not 
only in Germany, but in Russia. Sir James 
seemed rather more favourable to these views 
than I considered justified by the evidence upon 
which they were founded. He said he believed 
Hahnemann, with his extremely minute doses of 
medicines, cured as many patients as regular 
physicians did by their great ones, because he at 
the same time enjoined a rigorous diet. Count 
Woronzow inquired if Sir James would trust to 
Hahnemann's method of treatment in cases of 
inflammation of the brain or bowels, or in the 
fevers of the Crimea. Would the hundredth or 
the thousandth part of a grain of sulphate of 
quinine, he asked, stop the fits of one of these 
fevers ? He appealed to me to support the truth 
of what he said, and I had no hesitation in affirm- 



32 THE LAST DAYS OF 

ing that large doses of quinine often almost 
instantaneously arrested these fevers, when small 
doses proved ineffectual. 

Again the Emperor expressed how much he 
was pleased with Orianda, and stated that it was 
his determination to have a palace built there as 
expeditiously as possible. To my amazement he 
said, after a pause, " When I give in my demis- 
sion, I will return and fix myself at Orianda, and 
wear the costume of the Taurida." Not a word 
was uttered when this extraordinary resolution 
was announced, and I thought that I must have 
misunderstood the Emperor, but this could not 
be, for in a short time, when Count Woron- 
zow proposed that the large open fiat space of 
ground to the westward of Orianda should be 
converted into pleasure grounds for His Majesty, 
he replied: "X wish this to be purchased for 
General Diebitch, as it is right that the chief of 
my etat-major and I should be neighbours." 
During; dinner there was also some conversation 
respecting the chapel which was about to be built 
at Masandra, and the Emperor inquired whether 
or not it was to be a Greek chapel. A petition 
had been "presented for a Lutheran place of 
worship to be established at Nikita, and likewise 
that at Simpheropol the old Greek church 
should be converted into a Lutheran chapel, 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



33 



after the cathedral was finished. The Emperor 
said he was ignorant of the law upon this point, 
but that the Bishop would inform him whether 
it was contrary to law to permit a Greek church, 
when not required for the national religion, to be 
converted into a Lutheran chapel. If it was 
not, it ought to be granted, he said ; and I have 
no doubt that the Emperor's visit to the Monas- 
tery of St. George on the following day had 
some reference to this subject. General Diebitch 
enquired if there were many Lutherans in the 
Crimea, and particularly at Simpheropol ; to 
which Count TYoronzow replied, that if they had 
been numerous they would ere this have had a 
chapel of their own. A petition had also been 
presented by some Roman Catholics at Karasu- 
bazar for a piece of ground to build a Catholic 
chapel. The Emperor expressed his anxiety that 
all these petitions should receive due attention 
and be granted to the fullest possible extent. 
It appeared, from what was stated on this occa- 
sion, that the administration of the empire was 
conducted by Alexander on the true principles of 
religious toleration. 

His Majesty made a frugal repast, and drank 
little wine. When champagne was presented, 
Count Woronzow said, " Sire, may we be per- 
mitted to drink to the health of Her Majesty the 

D 



34 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



Empress ?" He replied u Most certainly and 
all immediately rising, did honour to the toast. 
On retiring, His Majesty returned thanks to 
Count Woronzow for the excellent entertainment 
he had provided; and, addressing himself to us all, 
said with kindness and condescension $ Your 
presence on this occasion has afforded me the 
greatest satisfaction." He then walked out and 
mounted the steps to the flat roof of the house, 
around which a number of Tartars were col- 
lected. He looked at the groups through his eye- 
glass, and observed, " What handsome Oriental 
countenances ! What a fine race of men ! One of 
the most striking peculiarities of the Crimea 
would be lost, if the Tartars were expelled : I 
hope they will be encouraged to continue here." 
An EfFendi was introduced to His Majesty to 
present a petition, which he did by bending down 
and raising his hands to his head, without re- 
moving his turban from it. 

The Emperor retired to rest early in the even- 
ing. In the middle of the night a courier arrived, 
upon which he arose and transacted business. 
General Diebitch, who slept in a house close to 
that in which I was, was twice summoned in the 
night to wait upon His Majesty. I was after- 
wards informed that the despatches brought by 
the courier were of the highest public impor- 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



35 



tance; in fact, that they fully revealed to His 
Majesty the existence of a dangerous and exten- 
sive conspiracy, of which he had not been pre- 
viously fully aware. 

On the morning of the 27th, after breakfast, 
the Emperor sent a message to say that he 
desired me to accompany him round the lower 
garden. After some conversation respecting 
the illness of the Empress and the proposal that 
I should visit Her Majesty professionally at 
Taganrog, he again called my attention to the 
magnificence of the scenery around us, and ex- 
pressed the pleasure he had derived from this 
visit to the Crimea, and the hope he entertained 
that at no very remote period its shores would be 
full of rich vineyards, and contain many flourish- 
ing villages and towns. I hinted, in the most 
delicate manner I could, that the frequent occur- 
rence of violent fevers to those who visited ihq 
Crimea and to its constant inhabitants, was tha 
only circumstance which appeared to me likely to 
prevent His Majesty's anticipations being com- 
pletely realized. He expressed a strong wish 
that I should remain in Russia, permanently 
attached to Count Woronzow, the value of whose 
public services he appeared justly to appreciate. 

At mid-day the Emperor and his attendants 
were on horseback, and, after shaking hands with 

D 2 



36 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



and taking an affectionate leave of all/ lie set 
out for Sevastopol. In a few days I returned 
with Count Woronzow to Odessa, by Perecop, 
Bereslaw, and Nicolaef, where we remained till 
the 22nd of November, 1825. 

At eight o'clock on Sunday morning, the 22nd 
of November, Count Woronzow expressed a 
wish to see me in his library. On going there, 
the Count stated that he had received bad news 
from Taganrog — that the Emperor n was dan- 
gerously ill; and that I must set out with him, in 
two hours, to render my assistance with the other 
physicians. It appeared, from a letter of the 7th 
instant that the Emperor had been attacked with 
symptoms of slight catarrh soon after leaving the 
Crimea, and that at Oriekoff these had assumed 
the decided form of remittent fever; that it had 
increased in severity; and that His Majesty 
refused to take any medicine. Another letter, 
of the 14th, stated that he was much worse; 
indeed in great danger : and that still he refused 
to submit to any medical treatment. A third 
letter, dated Thursday, the 19th, had also been 
received, from which it appeared that the malady 
had been daily growing worse, and that al- 
most all hope of his recovery was past. 

The Count was much afflicted when he communi- 
cated this intelligence) and expressed his fear that 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 37 



we should find all over before we reached Taganrog. 
We started from Odessa at mid-day ; and when 
our carriage was going slowly over the deep 
sands by the sea-shore, the Count said that un- 
pleasant occurrences seldom came alone; that a 
letter had arrived that morning from London, 
informing him of an accident which had endangered 
the life of his father ; also that William Findley, 
who had been his father's coachman for upwards 
of thirty years, had been thrown from his box, 
and lulled on the spot. "I knew William 
Findley well," he added, bursting into tears; 
iS and feel how much my father must have suf- 
fered on the occasion," 

We continued our journey to Nicolaef, where 
we arrived at midnight. The Count retired to rest 
for two hours, but I did not; being anxious to learn 
from Admiral Greig what consequences would be 
likely to result in the event of the Emperor's death, 
and the accession of his brother Constantine to 
the throne. We were, of course unacquainted with 
the fact that in 1822 the Grand Duke Constantine 
had voluntarily waived his title to the succession, 
and that the next in the line after him should take 
his place. Admiral Greig requested me to write 
to him immediately after my arrival at Taganrog, 
which I did ; and communicated all the informa- 



38 



THE LAST BAYS OF 



tion I could obtain respecting His Imperial 
Majesty's illness and death. 

We reached Cherson at seven o'clock in the 
morning*. There had been a hard frost during 
the night. The town was evidently in a state of 
decay; and many of the houses were roofless. 
During the previous winter the forage in the 
Crimea and country extending along the northern 
coast of the Black Sea was exhausted before the 
spring ; and the crops having been destroyed by 
the locusts and a drought, the people had actually 
been compelled in some places to employ the 
straw thatching of their cottages to feed their 
cattle. I had previously been informed that the 
commerce of the place was ruined ; that the rise 
of Odessa had in fact been the fall of Cherson. 
The Dnieper is here as broad as the Danube 
above Vienna, or the Rhone near the Mediter- 
ranean. At a short distance from the gate of the 
town we saw an obelisk, which had been erected 
by the Emperor Alexander to the memory of 
John Howard, who died of fever, near Cherson, 
on the 20th of January, 1790, and was buried in 
the open steppe, at a short distance from the 
town. It was his request that a sun-dial should 
be erected over his grave: and Admiral Greig 
informed me that this wish had recently been 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 39 



complied with ; and through the Admiral's exer- 
tions chiefly, as I learned from others. There is 
another Englishman buried by him. 

We arrived at Bereslaw at two o'clock in the 
afternoon of the 23rd and crossed the Dnieper 
on a raft, the floating bridge having been removed. 
In the morning of the 24th, we reached Oriekoff, 
which is on the high road between Taganrog and 
Warsaw, where the Grand Duke Constantine then 
was. The postmaster of this place stated that no 
account had been received of the Emperor's 
death ; but he must have wished to conceal the 
fact, for at the next post station we were at once 
informed that the news of his decease had been 
received two days before. 

On Wednesday, the 25th, at seven in the morn- 
ing, we arrived at Marienpole, a small town on 
the Sea of Azoff, inhabited by Greeks, who had 
emigrated from the Crimea forty years before. 
We remained an hour at the residence of a mili- 
tary officer of rank, who gave me a general 
account of the Emperor's illness. He informed 
me that bilious fevers were very common in 
autumn along the whole northern coast of the sea 
of Azoff. From Marienpole to Taganrog the 
country presented a most dreary aspect, and the 
post-houses and horses were truly wretched. We 
crossed a small river, and, entering Taganrog at 
eight o'clock in the evening, were immediately 



40 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



conducted by the governor of the town to the 
house of one of the most respectable merchants. 
Here we learned that His Majesty died on the 
19th of November; and that he had been in- 
sensible, and deprived of the power of swallowing 
two days before his decease. 

On Thursday, the 26th of November, I went 
to see His Imperial Majesty lying in state in the 
house where he had lived and died. I did not see 
the face of the Emperor, but I was informed that 
it was already completely changed and had be- 
come quite black. The coffin was placed upon 
a slightly-elevated platform, and covered by 
a canopy. The room was hung with black; 
and the coffin covered with a cloth of gold, 
There were numerous large wax lights burn- 
ing in the apartment, and each individual present 
held a lighted slender wax-taper. A priest was 
standing at the head of the coffin reading the 
Evangelists; and I was told that this was carried 
on day and night. On each side of the body a 
sentinel was placed with a drawn sword. In the 
ante-room were a number of priests putting 
on their robes and preparing for the service or 
mass, which was celebrated twice every day. 
There were no symptoms of melancholy in this 
crowded room, and some young military officers 
even displayed a degree of levity altogether un- 
suitable to the solemnity of the scene. The 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



41 



Empress, I was informed, remained constantly in 
an apartment, the door of which opened into that 
where the body of the Emperor was lying, and 
where the service was performed. Guards were 
stationed around the house, at the door, as also 
on the stairs, and in the ante-room. 

On the evening of Friday, the 27th of Novem- 
ber, I proceeded, at the request of Count Woron- 
zow, to the residence of Sir James Wylie, for 
many years physician to the person of His Im- 
perial Majesty, for the purpose of obtaining an 
account of the Emperor^s illness^ and the treat- 
ment which would have been pursued, had not 
His Majesty strenuously refused all medical assist- 
ance. Sir James read to me the whole of the 
reports of His Majesty's case, written down by 
him from day to day, and which contained the 
fullest and most satisfactory explanation of all 
the attendant circumstances. These reports were 
also signed by the other physicians, who coincided 
in the views entertained by Sir James respecting 
the nature and proposed treatment of the disease. 
As these reports were about to be forwarded to 
St. Petersburgh for the satisfaction of the Govern- 
ment, I could not procure a perfect copy, but the 
following are the most important facts they con- 
tained, and were noted down by me in short-hand 
as I heard them. Dr. Reinhold, surgeon to the 



42 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



Empress, who had remained with the Emperor 
during the night of the 12th of November, came 
in when Sir James Wyiie was thus occupied, and 
declared to me in the most unequivocal manner, 
that he was entirely of the same opinion with the 
other physicians respecting the nature of the 
disease, and of the means that would have been 
employed. 

The weather suddenly changed on the day the 
Emperor left Aloupka, the 27th of October. A 
thick mass of clouds covered the mountains in the 
afternoon, the east wind was cold, and a shower 
of rain fell. The previous day had been intensely 
hot on the coast, and at the time the Emperor 
was riding from Yoursouff to Aloupka. His 
Majesty was accustomed to travel in an open 
caleche with a light military cloak, trusting solely 
to the vigour of his constitution against the sud- 
den changes of the atmosphere. After quitting 
Aloupka, he went to that part of the road where 
the ascent of the Merdveen commences, and 
hesitated for some time whether to proceed by 
this difficult pass, over the mountains, which are 
between three and four thousand feet high, into 
the valley of Baidar, or by that of Foros. After 
a little delay he decided for the former, and arrived 
at Baidar fatigued, perspiring and unusually irrit- 
able on account of the unruliness of his horse. 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



43 



At Baidar, a caleche awaited him, but no refresh- 
ment was prepared — his maitre d'hotel having 
gone on to Sevastopol. From Baidar he pro- 
ceeded to Balaclava, and reviewed Colonel Ravi- 
lottos regiment of Greek guards. The Emperor 
again entered his caleche, and drove to that part 
where the road turns off to the monastery of St. 
George. Here he mounted a horse and rode to 
the monastery alone, a distance of at least ten 
versts. Sir J ames had gone forward before him 
to Sevastopol ; but the Emperor did not arrive 
there until it was quite dark, having remained 
upwards of two hours at the monastery, where 
was a bishop and several priests. He entered 
Sevastopol by torchlight; and before going to the 
house prepared, went to the church, and afterwards 
reviewed some troops drawn up in a line along 
the street through which he passed. His Ma- 
jesty dined alone, and it was said scarcely tasted 
anything. The following day, at twelve o'clock, 
he examined the barracks, hospital, and forts, 
and then set out for Bacheserai. On the 
journey he was observed to be asleep in the 
carriage. At Bacheserai the Emperor also dined 
alone, and the following morning he informed Sir 
James Wylie that he had suffered from an attack 
of bilious diarrhoea in the night, but that he was 
then perfectly well. Thus, he said, will all my 



44 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



complaints pass away without the help of medi- 
cine. Sir James did not state to me the circum- 
stances which led the Emperor to believe that 
medical treatment was of no avail in arresting 
the progress of disease, and to determine him not 
to have recourse to its aid. There could be no 
doubt that the Emperor had some peculiar views 
about the doctrine of predestination, but whether 
his scepticism respecting the efficacy of medi- 
cine originated in these opinions, I could not 
ascertain. 

His Majesty that day went to Chufut Kali, and 
returned in the afternoon to Bacheserai to meet 
the Tartar chiefs. Next day he went to Kosloff, 
and on arriving there Sir J ames observed that they 
had passed some marshes which emitted a most 
disagreeable odour. The following night he slept 
near Perecop, and on the next between the Isth- 
mus and OriekofF. At this place he was observed 
by his valet-de-chambre to be ill; but His Majesty 
did not inform Sir James of the circumstance, and 
the latter saw nothing unusual in the appearance 
of the Emperor the next morning during their 
visit to an hospital close by this village. But the 
valet afterwards stated that His Majesty had been 
very ill in the night, and enquired if Sir James 
did not observe how pale he was. In the carriage 
with General Diebitch on the road to Marienpol, 



THE EMPEROE ALEXAKDER. 45 
• • • • 

the Emperor was attacked with violent shiverings, 
and on arriving there, had a strong and distinct 
paroxysm of fever. A warm bed was prepared 
for him, and he took some hot punch. As the 
place they were in was of a wretched description, 
Sir James recommended him to push forward to 
Taganrog on the following day, and there to take 
the proper remedies. They reached Taganrog on 
the 5th of November, O.S. On the two following 
days, the Emperor suffered severely from derange- 
ment of the liver and digestive organs, and expe- 
rienced severe paroxysms of fever. It was evi- 
dent that he was severely attacked with the 
bilious remittent fever of the Crimea ; but at 
this time there was no headache or any other 
symptom of the brain being affected. Four grains 
of calomel were given and some purgative medi- 
cine, with great but temporary relief of the 
febrile symptoms, yet His Majesty would not 
consent to a repetition of these remedies, or to 
the adoption of any other means. On the 8th, 
the fever continued with undiminished violence, 
and as the Emperor positively refused to avail 
himself of the aid of medicine, Sir James re- 
quested that Dr. Stofregen, physician to the 
Empress, should be called into consultation. 
His head had now become burning hot, and a 
marked change was perceptible in His Majesty's 



46 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



countenance. "When Dr. Stofregen was intro- 
duced, he said, 66 1 am distressed to see your 
Majesty suffering in this manner." " Say no- 
thing of my indisposition/' replied the Emperor, 
u but tell me how the Empress is." After being 
satisfied on this point, His Majesty told Dr. 
Stofregen that Sir J ames Wylie considered him 
in a dangerous state, but he added, " I feel that 
I am not seriously ill, and that I shall recover 
without the employment of medical aid.' 5 

It was the opinion of the physicians, that the 
Emperor should have been bled at this time, and 
that calomel and cathartics should have been freely 
administered ; and this opinion they gave to the 
Emperor in a decided manner, but he would not 
consent to the employment of any remedies. The 
paroxysms of fever recurred, but there were 
occasional remissions when the pulse came down 
to the natural state; once to 71 and repeatedly 
to 90, but it was at all times during the progress 
of the disease extremely small and feeble. 

On the 13 th of the month, and tenth day of 
the disease, it was again proposed to take blood 
from the Emperor, but he would not submit. On 
the morning of the 14th, Sir James and the other 
medical attendants aofain uro;ed him to the same 
purport, but he refused, even to the application 
of leeches to the head. He rejected this proposal 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 47 



with the greatest impatience and obstinacy. The 
Empress on her knees implored him to consent, 
but he would not. " At first/' he said, " I had 
only an intermittent fever, and now it has been 
converted into a continued fever, and I will trust 
rather to my constitution than to the means re- 
commended." As it was now obvious that his 
life was in imminent danger, and that he was 
becoming worse and worse, Sir J ames proposed, 
late in the evening, that a priest should be brought 
to him. Sir James was again desired by the 
Empress to endeavour to convince His Majesty 
that his life was in the greatest danger, and that 
as he would not submit to medical treatment, he 
should think seriously, so long as he retained 
consciousness, of employing spiritual aid. On 
the morning of the 15th, at five o'clock, he was 
confessed by the priest j and he requested that in 
this religious act he should be confessed as a 
simple individual. When this was finished, the 
priest strongly urged His Majesty to employ 
medical aid, saying that, unless he did so, he 
would not fulfil the whole of his Christian duty. 
Between nine and ten o'clock he consented, for 
the first time, to the application of leeches to the 
temples. The brain had now become affected, 
and he was occasionally delirious, and uttered 
incoherent expressions. For thirty hours before 



48 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



his death, the Empress hardly quitted his bed-side. 
The scene was most affecting when the Emperor, 
on the 19 th, expired. The Empress had been 
kneeling by his bed-side, with her eyes fixed 
upon him, as he gradually became weaker and 
weaker, until all signs of life were gone. Then, 
rising, she closed his eyes, and with a handkerchief 
bound up his head, to support the lower jaw. 
After this, she folded his arms over his breast, 
kissed his hand, and then knelt down by the side 
of the dead body for half an hour in prayer to 
God. Throughout the whole of His Majesty^s 
illness, she manifested the strongest attach- 
ment to her husband; and at his death was 
inconsolable. 

On the post-mortem examination of the body 
being made, the appearances observed were such 
as are most frequently met with in those dying 
from bilious remittent fever, with internal con- 
gestion. Two ounces of serous fluid were found 
in the ventricles of the brain ; and all the veins 
and arteries were gorged with blood. There was 
an old adhesion between the dura and pia mater 
at the back part, but of no great extent. The 
heart and lungs were sound, but too vascular. 
The liver was turgid with blood, and of a much 
darker colour than natural. The spleen was en- 
larged, and softened in texture. 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



49 



The prevalence of fever in the Crimea during 
the autumn, the sudden change of the weather 
when the Emperor left the coast, the usual symp- 
toms appearing in the course of a few days after 
quitting Perecop, as I had before observed in 
others, with the subsequent history of the disease, 
and the appearances after death, rendered it cer- 
tain that the Emperor Alexander was cut off by 
the bilious remittent fever of the Crimea. 

During the six weeks I remained at Taganrog 
after the Emperor's death, I never heard that any 
one entertained a doubt, or expressed a suspicion, 
that His Majesty's death was attributable to any 
other than a natural cause. The physicians who 
had the care of His Majesty w T ere accused by 
some, without the slightest ground, of mis- 
managing the case; and I heard the question 
repeatedly put, " Why did they not compel His 
Majesty to submit to their plan of treatment?" 
or, in other words, as Sir James Wylie expressed 
it, why did they not commit the crime of lese- 
Majeste? — a proceeding which no circumstances 
could ever justify. 

I enjoyed the best opportunities in the Crimea 
of observing the devoted attachment of Sir J ames 
Wylie to the Emperor Alexander, whom he had 
accompanied in all his campaigns ; and I conscien- 
tiously believe, that on this trying occasion Sir 

E 



50 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



James Wylie discharged his arduous professional 
duty in a manner worthy of his high reputation, 
Taganrog, 26th November, o.s. 1825. — This 
town contains eight or nine thousand inhabitants, 
and has rather an agreeable appearance. The 
streets are wide and clean : the trottoirs high, and 
paved with hard stones brought from the sea-shore : 
lamps at considerable distances. There is one 
long broad street, and others going off from this 
at rio;ht angles. There are manv good houses : 
though I am assured few persons possessed 
of much wealth are settled here. The town 
covers a large space of ground, like Odessa and 
all the towns and villages in Russia. Each house 
as a courtyard, around which there are a 
l imber of small houses for the lowest class of 
ople. This court usually presents a scene of 
51th and confusion which baffles all description ; 

is only surpassed by some of the trackteers in 
Poland. Here are seen standing a number of old 
droshkies, caleckes, carts, and barrels upon wheels 
r bringing water, all up to the axletrees in 
iid, and exposed to the general influence of this 
le climate. Before the Emperor came here I 
s informed that the town was as dirty and 
fleeted as any town in Russia. A law was then 
sed by the Town Council, imposing a tax of 
rty kopecks upon each cart which goes with 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 51 

corn or any kind of commodity to the port 3 or in 
lieu of this the cart must return loaded with 
stones from the sea-shore for the streets. This 
law has had the effect of rendering the streets 
very good — much superior to those of Odessa. 
The variety of different nations here is still 
greater than at Odessa; but the season is too cold 
for them to come out into the streets to be seen. 
All the ladies are in mourning. The Sea of 
Azoff is not navigable after the beginning of 
October: two years ago all the vessels were frozen 
up in this month. The taxes upon foreign mer- 
chandize are bitterly complained of, amounting at 
least to four per cent, upon the capital. Many of 
the houses are built of brick, but the greater part 
of wood. There are three handsome churches; 
one called St. Alexander Xewski, where the 
body of the Emperor will lie in state after it is 
removed from the house in which he died, until 
such time as the preparations are completed for 
transporting it to St, Petersburgh, which will 
not be for three or four weeks. The commerce 
here is considerable ; yet all the merchants com- 
plain that they are ruined. Two hundred ships 
entered the port this year. There is a theatre for 
the Russians and Poles, and one for the Greeks 
also, both miserable : a new theatre was to have 
been built, but it will be given up now. The 

E 2 



52 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



town stands on a promontory, from which the 
mountains of the Caucasus are visible. To the 
east is a fine bay ; and about sixty versts distant 
is the mouth of the Don. The sea is so shallow 
that vessels are obliged to lie off at a distance 
of several versts. At the extremity of this point 
of land on which the town stands is a harbour 
of considerable extent, but it is nearly choked 
up and it is doubtful whether or not it can be 
cleared. Admiral Greig was desired by the late 
Emperor to examine it and to decide whether 
it could not be opened by means of the steam- 
engine. It is formed of a great wall of earths 
Between the present town and the harbour are 
immense mounds of earth, the remains of an 
extensive fortification, built by Peter the Great, 
which must have been a laborious and expensive 
work, and are now in absolute ruin. 

The following meteorological observations were 
taken at the Taganrog Gymnasium in the years 
1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823, and 1824. 

1817. — The greatest height of the barometer 
7th September, was 30° 38"; the lowest depres- 
sion was 29 English inches, 14th December at 
10 p.m. ; therefore the greatest difference be- 
tween the greatest height and lowest depression 
the medium is 29*7 V. The greatest heat was 
26° R., on the 18th July at 2 p.m. The greatest 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 53 

cold was 18° 5' R., on the 22nd December at 
midnight. During this year there were 82 days 
during which the mercury remained below 
zero, R.; and 283 days during which it was above 
zero. There were 25 windy and stormy days 
(62 windy); 199 common weather, during which 
blew light and gentle breezes and during which 
72 days quite calm; 69 clear days; half-clouds 
and half-sunshine 124 ; quite cloudy 140, during 
which 32 were foggy. Rain fell during 100 days 
in the year; snow during 16 days. The last 
snow the 6th March: the first 23rd October. 
Thunder and lightning 19 times in the year. 
The sea frozen over the 22nd December, and the 
first ship arrived the 19th March. 

1818. — Barometer greatest height was 30*46'; 
lowest 28-92'; medium 29'69'. Greatest heat 
27° R., 12th August 3 p.m. ; greatest cold 20^° R., 
February 5, which continued all that day: dif- 
ference 47|° between the greatest heat and cold 
range of the thermometer. 78 days mercury 
below zero. Stormy and very windy days 57 ; 
common windy days 54 ; and 198 days with 
light breezes, 56 of which calm. 87 clear days ; 
140 half cloudy and clear ; 138 quite cloudy ; 
22 foggy ; 51 rainy days; 22 snow fell. 19 times 
thunder-storms. Sea covered with ice 31st Oc- 
tober, and the first ship arrived the 7th March. 



54 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



1819. — Barometer greatest range 30° 99' ; 
lowest 29° ll'i medium 30° 5'. Greatest heat 
28° R.j 1st August mid-day; greatest cold 19° R. 9 
13th February at midnight : difference 47°. 
101 days mercury below the freezing-point. 
First frost 5th October; last frost 13th March. 
Stormy 68 and very windy ; common windy 66 ; 
160 common, of which 71 quite calm; 88 sun- 
shine; 158 half cloudy and clear; 119 cloudy; 
34 of these foggy. Rain fell during 46 days; 
snow during 16. Last snow 28th March; the 
first 25th October. 15 thunder-storms. The 
first ship arrived 11th April. Vegetation com- 
menced 20th April. 

1820. — Barometer greatest height 30° 82'; 
lowest 29° ; medium 29° 91'. Greatest heat 26°, 
14th July 9 A.M.; greatest cold 20^° R., the 
26th January 10 p.m. ; range of thermometer 36|°. 
90 days mercury below zero. First frost 24th 
October (1819); last frost 21st March (1820). 
33 days very stormy and windy ; 50 windy ; 
232 common dull light wind; 50 calm; 74 clear; 
185 mixed ; 100 cloudy, of which 27 foggy. 
53 days rain fell; 19 snow fell. Last snow 
18th March; first 17th November. 15 thunder- 
storms. Sea covered with ice 26th November. 
The first ship 7th April. Vegetation began 
16th April. 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 55 

1821. — Barometer 30° 57'; lowest 29° 18'; 
medium 29° 87'. Greatest heat 27° R, the 25th 
June8A.M, ; greatest cold 15 23rd February 
7 AoM. Range of thermometer 42^°. 70 d&ys 
below zero. First frost 30th September, 1820; 
the last 8th March. 29 days very stormy and 
windy; 48 windy; 228 common, of which 61 were 
calm; 73 clear; 225 mixed; 67 quite cloudy y of 
which 22 foggy; 50 rain fell; 10 snow fell. Last 
snow 3rd March; first 31st October. 15 thunder- 
storms. Sea covered with ice 1st November. 
First ship first days of April. Vegetation 8 th 
April. 

1822. — Barometer 33° 38' height; lowest 
29° 10' ; medium 29° 74'. Greatest heat 25° E. ? 
the 22nd June at 2 p.m. ; greatest cold 21^° R., 
31st December midnight. .Range of thermometer 
46i°. 83 days below the freezing point, not the 
whole days but some part of the twenty-four 
hours; 37 stormy and very windy; 90 windy; 
102 common, of which 50 calm; 21 clear; 
266 mixed; 80 very cloudy, of which 18 foggy; 
48 rain fell; 13 snow and metel. Last snow 
26th March; first 2nd November. 13 thunder- 
storms. Sea frozen 1st November. First ships 
12th April. 

1823. — Barometer 30° 33'; lowest 29° 21'; 
medium 29° 77'. Greatest heat 28° R, the 



56 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



1st August mid-day ; greatest cold 19|°, January 
1st at 8 a.m. Range of thermometer 47J°. 104 
days mercury below zero. Last frost, spring 1823, 
in April; first frost 12th October, 1822. 6 days 
stormy and very windy; 82 windy; 199 ordinary, 
78 of these calm; 51 clear; 203 mixed; 14 quite 
cloudy, of which 23 foggy; 11 rain fell; 6 snow. 
The last snow 5th March; first the 13th October. 
7 thunder-storms. First ships 2nd April. 

1824. — Barometer greatest height 30° 18' 
lowest 29°; medium 29° 99'. Greatest heat, 25th 
July, was 28J°R. ; greatest cold, 12th February, 
10|° R. Range 39°. 57 days thermometer 
below zero. Last frost, 13th March; first the 
13th of October. 23 days storm and verv windv; 
104 windy; 223 ordinary; 26 calm; 37 clear; 
243 mixed; 86 cloudy, of which 13 foggy; 
37 days rain fell; 13 snow. The last snow 
13th March; the first the 8th December. 12 
thunder-storms. Sea frozen over. First ship 
2nd April. Apricots bloomed 2nd April. 

From these observations at Taganrog, a correct 
general opinion may be formed of the climate 
of all the Russian provinces along the northern 
shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff^ 
taking into account the effects of latitude and 
longitude, extending between the Danube and the 
Don, the ancient Scythia of Herodotus. 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 57 

At Biala Cerkiew, near Kief, on the west side 
of the Dnieper > 545 versts north from Odessa, I 
made the following observations: 1825, March 
21st, deep snow and hard frost, 10° E. ; 22nd, 
13° E. ; 23rd, 10° E. ; 24th, 10°; 25th, 10° E. ; 
27th, 3°, snow disappearing ; 28th, frost, storms 
of snow; 31st, thaw. 1st April, 1825, severe 
frost in the night; 2nd, fall of snow 7°; 3rd, 
freezing all the day; 5th, snow; 7th, thaw; 8th, 
rain ; 9th, frost and snow ; 20th, slight frost, 
clear fine day; 11th, frost in the night, beautiful 
clear weather, 10° E ; spring, ice floating down 
the river Eoss; 12th, snow almost gone; 13th, 
spring, 12° heat E. ; vegetation commencing. 
All sign of winter gone except a few patches of 
snow on the steppes ; 14th, a sudden change in 
the nio;ht. In the morning- a cold north wind 
with snow. The thermometer fell at 10 A.M. to 
the freezing point. Yesterday afternoon it was 
at 14° E. heat. This is the most sudden change 
of atmospheric temperature I have ever witnessed. 
17th, 8° E., wind and rain; 18th, frost in the 
night; 19th, 1°, frosty fine day; 20th, 1^° E; 
21st, ground covered with snow; 22nd, snow 
gone ; 23rd, 3° E. ; 24th, frost ; 26th, rain and 
wind; 27th, a beautiful day, warm, vegetation 
advancing rapidly; 4tb, summer, 17° E. ; 9th, 
17° E. ; 13th, rain ; 16th, rain and cold weather; 



58 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



21st, cold winds and rainy weather; 22nd, 1° of 
heat only this morning at 8 o'clock; 23rd, cold 
wind ; 25th, 19° E. ; 27th, 28° E. during the day, 
8° in the night ; 28th, went from the town-resi- 
dence at Biala Cerkiew to Alexandria, about four 
versts distant. The gardens most beautiful ; 29th, 
a fete on the green, the Cossac dance. J une 2nd, 
thermometer at zero in the night. A great fall 
of hail at Berdichief, not very far distant ; jth, 
warm weather, gnats and mosquitoes in the night, 
serpents in the pavilions; 9th, 21° E., SE.W., 
heat not oppressive, slight thunder-storm; loth, 
23° E. ; at 11 o' clock fell in half an hour 7°, 
slight thunder-storm; 16th, 6° E., a difference 
nearly of 38° of Fahr. in 24 hours; 18th, cold 
rainy day. On the 14th July, 1826, thermometer 
21° E., thunder-storms; 15th, oppressive heat, 
severe thunder, 21° E. ; 26th July, violent thun- 
der storm which cooled the air, 22° E. In the 
evening a high wind, thermometer 14° in the 
night. August 2nd, high wind, thermometer in 
the morning 13° E. : 4th, thermometer 12°. 
September 10th, this morning thermometer fell to 
3^° E. Last night there w T as a great fall of rain 
with a strong NE.TT. Every thing now bears 
the appearance of an early winter; 15th, ground 
covered with hoar-frost. 

27th November, Taganrog. Mr. Hare informed 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 59 



me that the Emperor, while there, rose early, and 
that he slept upon a straw paliasse, with a small 
hard pillow of leather ; that he breakfasted upon 
green tea and a small bit of bread. He then 
walked out and noticed all who came in his way. 
He was frequently up to the knees in mud. The 
Emperor took a great pleasure in superintending 
the workmen who were employed in making the 
public garden, which he had ordered to be formed 
here. He dined at 2 p.m. and did not appear 
again on foot, but sometimes afterwards with the 
Empress in a droshky. All his attaches were 
unwilling to come to this place, but His Majesty, 
during a former visit, had taken a fancy to the 
town, and he seemed to feel a kind of gratification 
when the weather was fine, or anything else 
occurred to justify the choice he had made. At 
the public ball given, he danced with several of 
the ladies, and remained at least an hour and a 
half looking at the dances. He was fond of the 
Polonaise and Scotch dances, and requested that 
they should be exhibited before him, 

2nd Dec. — I dined with Mr. Hare, one of the 
most respectable merchants at Taganrog, where I 
met Mr. Gray, an Englishman, who had been the 
Emperor's gardener at St. Petersburgh for up- 
wards of thirty years. In conversation he frankly 
admitted that he had an unfavourable opinion of 



60 THE LAST DAYS OF 

the Russian Government and people. He said 
the nobles had no patriotism ; that when any pub- 
lic effort was required, they never came forward 
and subscribed, because they had no confidence in 
their country. This he said might perhaps arise 
from their knowing the Government so much 
better than foreigners. When any proposal was 
made to them to improve the country, their 
answer was, "Why does the Government not do 
it?" I told Mr. Gray that, at Odessa, Kief and 
every other town which I had visited, most un- 
favourable reports had been given to me of the 
corrupt state of the Government in every depart- 
ment in the army, navy, courts of justice, cus- 
toms and police. Extortion, peculation, and great 
injustice of every description, especially in all 
that related to the slaves, were represented as 
prevailing to a frightful extent throughout the 
vast dominions of the Emperor Alexander ; and 
that all attempts to arrest this torrent of wicked- 
ness was utterly unavailing. I inquired of Mr. 
Gray whether or not these representations were 
correct, and if so, how the nobility could have 
any confidence in the stability of such a system ? 
He described the country between Moscow and 
Taganrog as the finest possible for gardens and 
agriculture, but nothing, he said, was done ; the 
people were lazy, indolent, and poor ,* they never 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



61 



ploughed the lands properly; they merely scratched 
the surface, and in consequence the corn and 
plants could not strike their roots to any depth and 
often perished for want of moisture. The peasants 
or slaves had no proper implements to work with, 
no iron spades, nothing but large heavy and 
clumsy wooden shovels. He added, " They have 
no motives whatever for exertion." I inquired 
how men who were bought and sold like brutes 
for labour, kept in complete ignorance of their 
obligations to their Creator and their fellow-men, 
deprived of that liberty which every human 
being has as his birth-right — and of which, as a 
free and responsible agent, he cannot be deprived 
without a violation of the laws of nature and the 
principles of Christianity — and destitute of the 
ordinary comforts of life, — could have any motives 
for exertion. _ 
10th, Thursday. At 11 o'clock this forenoon I 
went to a wooden church where all the public 
authorities were assembled to swear allegiance to 
the Emperor Constantine. This was done by an 
ukaze from St. Petersburgh. The body of the 
church was filled with people of the lowest order, 
and mougiks, who shewed no enthusiasm on the 
occasion. The Archbishop, accompanied by a 
number of priests, walked out through the doors 
of the sacristy. The ukaze from the Council or 

A3Y9fI ^yilj » XOOtf DUB t JL.0lOuiil t TS£l 5197? 9Xq08(J 



62 



THE LAST DATS OF 



Senate was then read, commanding the oath to be 
administered. The Evangelists were brought out 
and placed on a low stool, and over this the cross. 
All the priests first approached it, making the 
sign of the cross upon their breasts, then kissed 
the Evangelists and the cross. The employes 
were all sworn ; the soldiers took the oath out- 
side the church. I inquired if the Emperor took 
any oath to the people on coming to the throne, 
or if there was any species of compact between 
him and his people ; and was informed that His 
Majesty would be required to take no oath ; and 
that his will would be uncontrolled and above all 
law. As Grand Duke Constantine, he had been 
represented to me as a detestable tyrant, as vio- 
lent and capricious in the highest degree. I 
could not procure a copy of the oath which was 
sworn on this occasion, but the following is a copy 
of the oath which the Emperor Alexander had com- 
manded all the Professors at Kreminietz to take 
in the previous month of April. This document 
was given to me in the Crimea by a gentleman, 
not a native of Russia, who had resigned his office 
rather than comply with a requisition which none 
but the most abject and degraded slave could have 
submitted to. It is as follows : " Moi Soussi^ne 
je promets et je jure a PEtre Supreme devant son 
Saint Evansnle et devant la Saint Croix si<nie de 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



63 



notre redemption, d'etre et de ne cesser d'etre 
fidele a Sa Majeste Imperiale Alexandre Paulo- 
wiez, Autocrat de toutes les Hussies, mon vrai, 
naturel et tres-gracieux Souverain, ainsi qu'au 
successeur qui sera designe au trone de Sa Majeste 
de toutes les Russies : de les servir fidelement et 
avec zele de leur etre toujours soumis en toute ; 
de verser pour eux jusqu'a la derniere goutte de 
mon sang : d'observer et de defendre, dans le sens 
le plus etendu, de tout mon pouvoir et de toutes 
mes forces, les prerogatives et les attributs repor- 
tants et qui peuvent reporter de Pautorite supreme 
de Sa Majeste Imperiale; de me preter, dans toutes 
les circonstances, autant que cela depende de moi, 
a tout ce qui pourra avoir rapport tant au service 
de Sa Majeste Imperiale qu'au bien-etre de Petat; 
d'avoir non-seulement a temps tout ce qui pourrait 
etre prejudiciable aux interets de Sa Majeste 
Imperiale, mais encore de tacher de prevenir tout 
ce qui pourrait leur etre contraire, de garder fidele- 
ment les secrets qui me seront confies, de remplir 
strictement et selon ma conscience les fonctions 
qui me sont commises : de me conformer en tout, 
tant a Pinstruction generale qu'a ce qui est pro- 
mulgue separement : de me me qu'aux reglemens 
et ukases publies au nom de Sa Majeste Imperiale 
par autorite superieure : de n' avoir ejamais en vue 
ni mon propre interet, ni Pamitie, ni la parente, de 



64 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



ne rien faire insidieusement de contraire a mes 
devoirs et a nies fonctions, de me conduire tou- 
jours en tout comme le doit un sujet fidele de Sa 
Majeste Imperiale. Et comme je dois comparaitre 
un jour devant le redoutable tribunal de Dieu pour 
lui rendre compte, si je prevarique, je lui livre 
mon corps et mon ame. En foi de mon serment, 
je baise l'Evangile et la croix de notre Sauveur. 
Ainsi soit il. — Krerainietz, le 12 Avril, 1825." 

11th December, 1825, Friday. This morning 
at nine o'clock the body of the Emperor Alex- 
ander was conveyed from the house in which 
he resided to the church called St. Alexander 
Newsky, which has been fitted up for its recep- 
tion. The streets were lined with troops. At 
half past nine the procession set out. A small party 
of gendarmes commanded by the Master of Police, 
under his direction, led the way. Then followed 
the valets, cook, and others, employed about His 
Majesty. Next, the persons employed about the 
quarantine and others of the town. Then came a 
number of priests with flags, torches, and crosses, 
usually carried in funeral processions. Then came a 
band of singers. After these a number of generals 
bearing the orders, crosses, &c, of His Majesty. 
The car was drawn by six horses covered with 
black cloth. The coffin was exposed at the head. 
The feet covered with the same yellow gold cloth 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 65 



which I noticed in the chamber in his house. Over 
the coffin was a canopy with yellow silk. Attached 
to the car were a number of cords, which were 
held by some of the most distinguished officers of 
His Majesty. After these followed a body of 
Cossacks with their pikes reversed. The day was 
bitterly cold, and the effect was not great. The 
Empress's coach followed the hearse, also another 
coach and droshky. Guns were fired at short 
intervals from the time the procession set 
out. 

12th. I went to the church of St. Alexander 
Newsky this morning where the Emperor's body 
was lying in state. There was a platform in the 
middle of the church covered with black, to which 
the ascent was by several steps. On this was a 
small elevation covered with red. Over this was 
placed the coffin surmounted by the canopy. 
There were two Cossacks with drawn swords at 
each door of the church. A number of slaves or 
peasants were looking in but not permitted to 
enter. All the priests were preparing to cele- 
brate the service in cloaks. Four guards paced 
around the coffin. A priest in black at the head 
read the Gospels. At the feet, on cushions raised 
on stools covered with red velvet, were the 
different orders of His Majesty. This was all 
that remained of the mighty Sovereign who had 

F 



66 THE LAST DATS OF 

reigned over forty millions of slaves, and whose 
empire had extended from China to the Baltic 
Sea, and from the confines of Persia and Turkey 
to the Arctic Ocean. 

24th, Thursday. — At last the doubt which has 
prevailed during the last three weeks respecting 
the successor to the throne has been dissipated. 
This morning letters and a printed document, by 
the order of the new Emperor, Nicholas I, have 
arrived from St. Petersburgh. It appears that 
in 1822, Constantine wrote a letter to the late 
Emperor, stating his desire to waive his title to 
the succession in case of the Emperor's decease, 
and requesting that the next in the line after him 
should take his place. This letter was laid before 
the Empress-mother, and the Emperor Alexander 
acceded to the request. The letter of Constan- 
tine and the act of Alexander, declaring Nicholas 
his successor, were enclosed in a sealed packet, 
and delivered some time ago into the hands of the 
council of the Empire, to be opened by them in 
case of his decease. It was to be the first act of 
the Council after Alexander's death. When this 
was done, the Grand Duke Nicholas and the 
Council, wishing to give Constantine an oppor- 
tunity of revoking this agreement, caused all 
the troops and authorities in St. Petersburgh to 
swear allegiance to him, and sent off a messen- 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 67 



ger to Warsaw to invite Constantine to Peters- 
burgh. An answer was immediately sent from 
Warsaw, declaring that his purpose to live in 
retirement continued unchanged; and in the 
printed paper of the day the manifesto of the new 
Emperor calling on all his subjects to take the 
oath of allegiance to him is published.^ It also 
appears, from the printed paper, that a regiment 
of guards at Petersburg^ refused to take the 
oath and broke out into an open revolt. The 
Emperor Nicholas went to them, and reasoned 
with them calmly in the midst of the tumult ; 
but all his arguments proving ineffectual^ force 
was obliged to be had recourse to, to bring them 
into subordination. Nicholas remained among 
them several hours, in the utmost danger of being 
murdered; and the Count Milaradowitch was shot 
dead by a person not in a military uniform. 
There were seven officers belonging to good 
families engaged in this seditious movement; and 
it is also stated that other persons not belonging 
to the army urged on the soldiers to this despe- 
rate act. The number of lives lost I have not 
heard; but it must have been considerable, as the 
sedition was not quelled until several pieces of 
artillery were brought to play upon them, They 
were chiefly young men who were engaged in 
this affair, ; but that an extensive conspiracy was 

F 2 



68 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



formed to prevent the accession of the present 
Emperor there cannot, I think, be a doubt, from 
persons not in military uniform taking part in 
the proceedings and urging forward the soldiers. 
This is an ominous commencement of the reign 
of Nicholas; and will not be forgotten, though it 
should be equally prosperous as that of his pre- 
decessor and of still longer duration. To-night 
the body of the late Emperor is to be packed in 
the coffin and the lid screwed down. Sir James 
Wylie and the Empress are to be present. I am 
told the removal to-morrow does not take place 
on account of the severe cold. General Frederiks, 
brother of the Commandant of this town, was 
wounded at St. Petersburgh. It is probable that 
a true report of these proceedings will never be 
obtained from any individual in this country ; 
the versions of the affair being already as nume- 
rous as the individuals engaged in it. It is 
likely some of the persons attached to the 
English Embassy were present and saw all that 
passed ; and if this were so, a clear and full 
statement may perhaps in two months be obtained 
from that quarter. 

26th, Saturday. — There was an intention to' 
proclaim a Constitution at Petersburgh on the 
14th. Thirty officers are said to be implicated 
in this conspiracy. All who were with the 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 



69 



Emperor that day are created Aides -de-Canip, 
and Generals-en-Chef. We return to Odessa 
on Tuesday, when the removal of the body to 
St. Petersburgh will positively take place. Yes- 
terday was a festival, but there was little appear- 
ance of gaiety, and less drunkenness than usual 
on such an occasion. The whole of these pro- 
ceedings will exert a pernicious influence on the 
character of this reign. The Emperor Nicholas 
will either be a tyrant or a coward. 

During the time we remained at Taganrog, I 
resided in the same apartments with Baron Bruno w 5 
and was on very friendly terms with him. One 
day he related to me the following anecdote in 
his most playful manner : u An English noble- 
man and the celebrated M. de Montesquieu 
once met at Venice, and were comparing the 
English and French nations. M. Montesquieu 
maintained, that the French were much more 
intelligent and acute than the English. The 
Englishman did not contradict him, although he 
did not give his assent entirely, being prevented 
by politeness from contradicting him. Every 
night M. de Montesquieu committed to paper what 
had passed during the day. On the following 
morning after this conversation, an Italian en- 
tered the apartments of the Marquis, and said, 
' You keep a journal of what you observe, and 



70 



THE LAST DAYS OF 



it is disliked extremely by the Government. I 
advise you to burn your Journal immediately, 
otherwise you will run the risk of being thrown 
into prison. He immediately cast his Journal 
into the fire and it was consumed/ The same 
evening the English nobleman waited upon him, 
and M. de Montesquieu related the circumstance, 
and expressed himself very uneasy at the thought 
of being subjected to imprisonment. The English- 
man observed, 6 Now you see the difference be- 
tween the English and French : had this happened 
to an Englishman he would have considered the 
probability of this, or at least have endeavoured to 
avoid it ; he would certainly not have thrown his 
Journal into the fire as you have done. I sent 
the Italian to see how you would act on this 
occasion, for the purpose of shewing you the 
difference between the two nations. 5 " 

In spite of this kind and delicate hint my 
Journal or Diary was continued, and it has not 
yet been cast into the fire and consumed. I 
shall close this account of the last days of the 
Emperor Alexander with an extract from this 
Journal, dated the 13th December, 1825, before 
the news arrived at Taganrog of a conspiracy and 
revolt at St. Petersburgh : — 

The Journal which I have kept since quitting 
London has proved a source of the greatest 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 71 



pleasure and improvement to me : it has accus- 
tomed me to observe with greater care and has 
been the means of enlarging the boundaries of 
my knowledge, by inspiring me with an increased 
desire for information on all subjects connected 
with the laws, institutions, and manners of the 
people of this country. It has been a sort of 
task-duty to me, as has been observed, without 
the discharge of which I do not feel that the 
business of the day is performed. No friendly 
eye may ever peruse its details, and I may not 
live to enjoy in the security and peace of my 
native country the satisfaction which a reference 
to it might afford. The events now passing 
before me interest not only Russia and all 
Europe, but they will ultimately produce an 
effect upon the general condition of the human 
race. The first symptoms of the bursting forth of 
forty millions of men to liberty and equal laws 
is a phenomenon sufficient to arrest the attention 
and rouse the warmest feelings of the heart. 
In the present situation in which I am placed, 
and cut off from the society which I love and from 
the professional occupations which have formed 
the greatest pleasure and charm of my past life, 
the exercise of committing my thoughts and all 
that I witness around me to paper is attended with 
a very excellent effect. It seems to act as a 
Pptt?S }o ODiifoa m 63701a mil nobmd 



72 



THE LAST DATS OF 



sedative wlien agitated by feeling, or overcome by 
despondency, and I never lay down my pen but 
I rise stronger in virtuous resolution, more ardent 
in hope, more satisfied with the lot that Provi- 
dence has assigned me in life. " A thousand vague 
fears, wild expectations, and undigested schemes 
hurry through one's thoughts in seasons of doubt 
and danger ; but by arresting them as they flit 
across the mind and throwing them on paper, and 
thus by the mechanical act compelling oneself 
to consider them with scrupulous and minute 
attention, one may perhaps escape becoming the 
dupe of one's own excited imagination, just as a 
young horse is cured of the vice of starting by 
being made to stand still and look for some time 
without interruption at the cause of its terror." 
In Russia, it is true, I have met with little to 
admire or imitate, and learned nothing which 
can benefit my own country in any respect. 
Many centuries must elapse before the people of 
this empire can rise to a condition to be put in 
comparison with the people who form the nations 
of the west of Europe. Here at present know- 
ledge and a desire for useful information are met 
with in a few individuals only ; I might say in 
none without exaggeration, except those who 
have been educated in foreign countries, or filled 
official situations far from Russia. Court favour, 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 73 



honours, rank, crosses, and other similar baubles 
are the objects of ambition with the highest and 
the lowest with few exceptions; while public 
virtue, usefulness, and the desire of improving 
and benefiting the mass of the slaves is looked 
for in vain. The greater number of the nobility, 
or slave-holders, being excluded from those mental 
occupations suited to their rank, which they would 
find in other countries, betake themselves for the 
most part to gambling and low sensuality. The 
condition of the slaves is afflicting in the highest 
degree to every man possessed of any spark of 
human feeling or any sense of justice ; and it is 
impossible without sorrow to witness the wretched 
condition in which they are almost universally 
doomed to spend their lives. The extent of this 
slavery is also to be taken into account, and the 
utter degradation of the human intellect in so 
large a mass of our species. 

The following observations were written after 
my arrival at Taganrog with Count, now Prince 
Woronzow, when the general expression of grief 
and affliction for the Emperor Alexander had 
begun to subside. The people here, and indeed 
all over the empire, were much attached to their 
sovereign, on account of his personal good qualities 
and amiable and conciliating manners. Affability 
and benevolence he certainly possessed in an emi- 



74 



THE LAST DATS OP 



nent degree, and had he not been a great monarch 
he would have been beloved and respected by all 
who knew him. But I have met with none here 
who have endeavoured to form an estimate of his 
public and political life. I have asked, what has 
he done for the internal improvement of the 
country ? but no one has fixed upon any object of 
importance which will serve to commemorate his 
reign. Of his conduct in regard to Greece, 
Italy, and Spain, there can be but one opinion ; 
and, in respect to Russia, few will hesitate to 
express their conviction, that his blind attach- 
ment to the army, and his dread and hatred of all 
free institutions in the country, have been two 
of the greatest errors which a sovereign could 
have committed. The former passion led to the 
ruin of the commerce of the country and finances 
of the empire ; and the latter to the proscription 
of every species of public instruction, and an 
obstinate opposition to the introduction of all 
useful knowledge. The state of the universities 
is truly wretched; every man of talent being 
either driven out or forced to quit them, owing to 
the restrictions to which they have been subjected. 
Had one thousandth part of the sums which he 
expended on the army and navy been devoted to 
the institution of public schools, to the gene- 
ral welfare of the people, and to the instruc- 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 75 

tion and emancipation of the slaves, civilization 
might have been far advanced ; and the danger 
which must ever exist to a country where so 
large a proportion of the people are in a state of 
slavery, greatly diminished, if not completely 
removed. But everything like freedom was 
banished from the country, and all was sacrificed 
to this great army. If, instead of wasting the 
last ten years in exercising his unwieldy host, in 
planting military colonies, and in crushing the 
rising liberties of Germany and the south of 
Europe, he had directed his mind to the improve- 
ment of the laws and civil institutions of the 
country, and to the amelioration of the forty 
millions of slaves in his empire, what a magni- 
ficent and imperishable monument would he not 
have raised to his fame all over the world. As 
things are, he will not cease to be viewed in all 
succeeding ages, by political philosophers, as a 
scourge to his country, and as one who utterly 
failed in fulfilling the high destinies which Provi- 
dence at the commencement of his reign appeared 
to have marked out for him. 

By firmly resisting the invaders of his coun- 
try, by marching his army into Germany after 
their retreat, and by his conciliatory manners 
keeping the Sovereigns on the Continent in a 
state of union till the power of their adversary 



76 



THE LAST DAYS OP 



was destroyed^ there can be no doubt that he 
rendered the greatest services to the nations of 
Europe. But in so far, and no farther, are they 
indebted to him. The fate of this vast empire no 
one can certainly foretell ; but that changes await 
it, and at no distant period, who can doubt ? The 
army is rotten at the core. Many of the officers 
detest the present system of government, and 
desire a representative and constitutional govern- 
ment, and long to see the slaves educated and 
gradually emancipated. The soldiers cannot feel 
any attachment to the government which has 
dragged them from their homes and doomed them 
to a life of the severest hardship. Slight circum- 
stances might effect the most important changes 
in the whole structure of society in Russia, and 
it is hardly possible that good should not spring 
from any change, All power being vested in the 
army, the changes will begin first in that quarter, 
and will propagate themselves into all the ranks of 
the empire. Again, I say, that no one regrets the 
Emperor Alexander as a public loss, and I feel 
certain that out of Russia few tears will be shed 
on this occasion, except by those wretched despots 
whom he has assisted by upholding them in their 
unlimited and unlawful power. Even at Tagan- 
rog, where his body now lies, where his Empress 
is still present in a state of deep mourning for his 



THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 77 

loss, and where all the trappings of woe are exhi- 
bited, the tears of the people have already ceased to 
flow, and the thoughts of all are directed with the 
deepest anxiety to the line of conduct which his 
successor, Constantine, will follow. The Emperor 
Alexander undoubtedly gained the affection of 
those immediately around his person, because he 
was most attentive to their feelings and wants, 
and by them he is no doubt sincerely regretted ; 
but of his tender mercies to the people at large 
I can see no evidence. Where were his sympa- 
thies at the Congresses of Troppau, Laybach, and 
Verona, for the people, whose national indepen- 
dence he violated ? How did his compassion shew 
itself when inflicting so much misery on those 
whom he had torn from their families to fill up the 
ranks of his useless and almost countless legions ? 
What regard to the feelings of those crown slaves 
whom he had planted in his military colonies ? — 
Verily the Emperor Alexander had much to ac- 
count for, before the tribunal of Him "who seeth 
and judgeth not as man seeth and judgeth." 



THE END OF PART I. 



PAUT II. 



THE FIRST DATS 

OF 

THE EMPEEOE NICHOLAS. 



THE FIRST DATS 

OF 

THE EMPEKOK NICHOLAS. 



On the 10th January, 1826, the day after the 
funeral procession had set out for Petersburgh, 
I left Taganrog with Count Woronzow to return 
to Odessa. The thermometer during the greater 
part of this dismal journey was about 16° below 
the freezing point of Fahrenheit, and a wind, 
sometimes like a hurricane, was blowing from the 
vast plains between us and Siberia. While at 
Taganrog I had frequently seen the bodies of 
those w T ho had perished from the cold on the 
steppe in the night brought into the town in the 
morning, and had been permitted to subject them 
to anatomical examination, to ascertain the effects 

G 



82 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



of the intense cold upon the heart and the other 
internal viscera. 

In our journey from Odessa to Taganrog, as 
we travelled along the steppe, I had read to the 
Count Woronzow, being alone in the carriage 
with him several hours in the day, portions of 
English reviews and journals., voyages of disco- 
very, and travels into Africa which had then been 
recently published. We reached Mcolaef in safety, 
where as usual we met with a cordial reception 
from Admiral Greig. A short time before this 
a ship of 80 guns had been launched, and one 
of 110 guns, which was to be named the Derbent 
was upon the stocks. At Odessa the universal 
feeling prevailed that the nation had been saved 
by the decision and courage of the Emperor 
Nicholas at Petersburgh on the 14th December. 
I was however deeply afflicted on learning, that 
some of those from whom I had received the 
greatest kindness and attention in Russia, and 
for whose character I entertained respect, were 
among the conspirators ; that they had been ar- 
rested, conveyed to Petersburg^ and were im- 
mured in the dungeons of the fortress on a charge 
of high treason. General Michael Orloff!, whose 
services in the French war were well-known, was 
one of these. 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 83 



In the month of June, 1825, I had ac- 
companied his brother-in-law, Col. Alexander 
Rajewsky, to Kief, and had spent three days 
most happily in the society of General Orloff. 
His wife was generally admitted to be one of the 
most accomplished and virtuous women in Russia, 
and in all his domestic relations he appeared 
most happy. General Orloff did not conceal 
from me his dissatisfaction with the condition of 
the slaves and the corrupt state of the Govern- 
ment, but he did not give vent to any expression 
from which it was possible to infer that he was 
involved in any enterprise to destroy the Imperial 
Family and subvert by violence the existing order 
of affairs. He was deeply engaged in the study 
of political economy, chemistry, and other sciences, 
in which it was understood he had made great 
progress. With General Orloff and Colonel 
Rajewsky I saw all the churches, chapels, altars, 
shrines, and the catacombs at Kief, dug out of 
the rock, in which were contained the bodies 
of more than a hundred bishops, saints, and 
historians. The recollection of his noble and 
generous countenance and his kindness on that 
occasion have never been effaced. 

Count Olizar, a Polish nobleman, who had 
accompanied Count Woronzow to the Crimea, 

G 2 



84 



THE F1EST DAYS OP 



and remained with us all the time we were on 
the South Coast, was another prisoner at Peters- 
burgh. He was in very delicate health; he had 
been singularly unfortunate in his family, and 
was labouring under the deepest melancholy, 
and in despair respecting his unhappy country, 
"On the 25th of September, 1825, at Yoursouff, 
at dinner, I sat next the Count Olizar. He said 
sadly: 6 How miserable it is to be a Pole with any 
head and any feeling:' and taking out a small 
pocket-book, he shewed me a scrap of paper on 
which were written the two following lines from 
The Pleasures of Hope: — 

e Hope for a season bade the world farewell, 
And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell/ " 

Count Olizar and the Colonels Alexander and 
Nicholas Rajewsky were soon liberated ; but 
Prince Serge Volhonsky, who had married ano- 
ther daughter of General Rajewsky, the sister of 
Madame Orloff, and not less distinguished for her 
virtues and accomplishments, in a few months after 
had his sword broken over his head, was stripped 
of his rank and honours, reduced to the condition 
of a common slave, and banished into the wilds 
of Siberia, where he has remained, if living, ever 
since. I had been introduced, the previous winter, 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



85 



to Prince Volhonsky at Biala Cerkiew, the resi- 
dence of the Countess Branicka, the mother of 
the Countess Woronzow, and at Odessa had pro- 
fessionally attended his family and become 
well acquainted with him. He was a most 
affectionate father and devoted husband; but I 
knew at the time that he was not in favour with 
the Emperor Alexander and had incurred by 
some frivolous act the deadly hatred of Count 
Araktcheieff. I had before this been informed that 
the following laughable circumstance, which had 
taken place four years before, during a visit of 
the Emperor to the military colonies, of which 
Count Araktcheieff was the founder, was the cause 
openly assigned for Prince Volhonsky' s disgrace. 

The following is the account of this affair, 
copied verbatim from my Journal : — 

The military colonies please one at first sight 
from the order and cleanliness everywhere pre- 
vailing in them ; but their population is said to 
be wretched in the highest degree. When the 
Emperor Alexander was here, some years ago, he 
went round visiting every house ; and on every 
table he found a dinner prepared, one of the prin- 
cipal articles of which consisted of a young pig 
roasted. The Prince Volhonsky suspected there 
was some trick, and cut off the tail of the pig and 



86 



THE FIRST BATS OF 



put it in his pocket. On entering the next house 
the pig was presented, but without the tail, upon 
which Prince Volhonsky said to the Emperor, 
" I think this is an old friend." The Emperor 
demanded his meaning, when he took out the 
tail from his pocket and applied it to the part 
from which it had been removed. The Emperor 
did not relish the jest, and it was supposed this 
piece of pleasantry led to his disgrace. A more 
effectual, though bold and dangerous, method of 
exposing to the Emperor the deceptions carried 
on throughout the military colonies under Count 
Araktcheieff could not have been adopted than 
that which Prince Yolhonsky had recourse to on 
this occasion. From that time Count Araktcheieff 
became his bitter enemy. 

Nothing can be sold without the knowledge 
of the officers in these military colonies. It is 
said that when a hen lays an egg, it is neces- 
sary to make an entry of the fact in a register, 
kept for this and other equally important pur- 
poses. I was told, that when a priest was speak- 
ing to some of these peasants about the punish- 
ments of hell, they answered they dreaded them 
not, because a worse hell than that in which they 
were doomed to pass their whole lives here could 
not possibly exist. 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



87 



When I was in the Crimea, during the autumn 
of 1825, I heard of the murder of Araktcheieff's 
mistress, a woman of the most cruel and tyran- 
nical disposition. A favourite female slave, 
having given her some offence, was ordered to be 
whipped in a barbarous manner; her brother, 
incensed at the outrage, vowed vengeance against 
the offender, and in a few days stabbed her to 
the heart.* 

* See Sehnitzler's Secret History of the Court of Russia. 
In the account of the life of Araktcheieff, recently published, it 
is stated that the Count " had a mistress who ruled him, as he 
did the Emperor. She was the wife of a sailor, a woman of 
haughty and imperious character, avaricious, and hated for her 
cruelty. Yet she was courted, and her interest was solicited : 
the head of the police paid her the most marked attention, and 
even men of the first families did not blush to memorialize her, 
and to flatter her pride and avarice by presents. Naturally 
cruel, she exercised her authority over the serfs who waited 
upon her with the utmost barbarity. The assassin, whom rage 
had impelled to strike the blow, was not the only culprit. In 
order to perform the deed he required accomplices, and had 
found them among his comrades, who all hated their tyrannical 
mistress. The accused were twenty-one in number ; and that 
circumstance brought the case under the jurisdiction of the 
Senate. To withdraw them from the higher tribunal, the Count 
had them tried on the spot of their guilt in lots of seven each. 
In contempt of existing laws, many were broken on the wheel, 
and all condemned. Alexander in the meanwhile had taken 
•his journey to Taganrog, and Araktcheieff remained at his post. 
He was not yet consoled for the loss he had sustained, when he 
was overwhelmed with the news of the death of his beloved 
master. The act of grace before mentioned could not fail to be 



88 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



The death of Alexander and the events which 
followed rendered it necessary for Count TToron- 
zow to go to St. Petersburg!^ and to postpone 
till the month of November his visit to England. 
We left Odessa on the loth of March, 1826, o.S., 
and reached the capital on the 11th April. We 
proceeded through the governments of Cherson 5 
Podolia, Kief 5 Czernigow, Mohilew, Witepsk, 
Pskow, and Petersburgh, from the Black Sea to 
the Baltic, at a time when the roads were almost 
impassable. During this journey, I continued to 
record in my Diary or Journal the observations 
which I made, and from which the following 
extracts are taken. 

announced on the accession of the new monarch. It would have 
saved the unfortunate beings upon whom General AraktckeiefTs 
vengeance had fallen, from the dreadful punishment of the 
knout. Banishment to Siberia was not, he thought, sufficient 
punishment ; so he hastened the preparations for enforcing the 
sentence, which was carried out with all rigour on the very eve 
of the publication of the amnesty.'' 

I can bear my testimony to the truth of the following state- 
ments by the same writer i — " So recently as 1825 every one 
trembled in the presence of AraktcheielF : his name was in every 
mouth : every act of severity and oppression which overshadowed 
the last ten years of the life of Alexander — a monarch in his 
own impulses noble and generous— was laid at his door." 

Photius the monk had obtained the same influence over 
Araktcheieff which he had acquired over the Emperor. " Alex- 
ander learning the deplorable condition to which his favourite 
had been reduced by the loss of his mistress/'' observes the same 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



89 



16. Tiraspol. — I visited the military hospital, 
and, at the request of Count TV r oronzow> paid a 
visit to General Sebanieff, who had been suffering 
from biliary calculi, but was recovering. Bender, 
where Charles XII. had taken refuge after the 
battle of Pultowa, I could see with difficulty 
from a height near Tiraspol. During the day we 
proceeded along the Dneister. We passed a 
large Armenian village in a very flourishing state. 
In the evening late we arrived at Count Xessel- 
rode's, t went v-f our miles from Balta. He had 
established here great flocks of merinos. I saw 
several of these ; one was valued at a thousand 

author, " applied to the monk for assistance to rouse him from 
his dejected state. He addressed to him a letter, saying he 
had learned that Araktcheieff was a prey to despair : that he 
(Photius) alone could prevent the fatal consequences to be 
apprehended from it — he, whose words full of holy unction, and 
whose unblemished life had recalled so many stray sheep to the 
fold. He conjured him from the depths of his heart to exert 
his powers : and continued — \ Summon him to your side ; speak 
to him in the name of religion ; strengthen his faith ; entreat 
him to take care of himself for the sake of his country, to which 
he is of such consequence : — you will preserve to her a peerless 
servant, and to me a faithful friend, to whom I am sincerely 
attached.' The man of God complied with the wishes of the 
monarch ; he invited the favourite to come to him ; Araktcheieff 
went, and remained some weeks in the holy retreat, performed 
penance, and regained calmness. But his thirst for vengeance 
did not yield to the influence of religion, the first law of which 
enjoins forgiveness of injuries." 



90 



THE FIEST DAYS OF 



roubles, another could not be purchased for any 
money. It is a small kind of sheep, the wool 
consisting of fine threads or fibres like silk. Few 
trees ; ground in this tract uneven. 

18. — Passed Balta, a large town full of Jews. 
From this the country assumes a rich appearance, 
and no country can surpass Podolia in fertility of 
soil and luxuriance of the woods. We dined at 
the General Goudewitch's, who has a large estate 
between Balta and Tulcvn. He is the son of the 
General Count Goudewitch, who commanded the 
unfortunate Russian expedition against Persia in 
the time of Paul. Podolia belonged to Poland ; 
and Paul gave this estate with all the peasants to 
his father. The house was large and comfortable, 
though built of wood, and well furnished, and the 
domestics all well clothed. 

19. — Arrived at Tulcyn, the former grandeur 
of which has been described by Tweddel in one 
of his letters, and by Mr. J ames in his Travels in 
Russia in 1806. At present the palace, which 
is falling rapidly into ruins, belongs to Count 
Micheslaus Potocki, who is represented to be an 
avaricious man, and hard to the slaves. In one 
of the wings of the palace was lodged General 
Kisseleff, who had married the eldest daughter of 
the Count Potocki, and who is settled here as 



THE EMPEKOR NICHOLAS. 



91 



chief of the staff of General Wittgenstein. The 
whole establishment of General Kisseleff appeared 
miserable. In front of the palace were rank 
weeds and grass growing, the garden neglected; 
slavery in its most dire forms existing all around. 

21st. — Slept this night at Count Jaroslaus 
Potocki's. The house small, but extremely com- 
fortable. The Count is the half brother of the 
other Potocki's, and is represented to be a man of 
good taste. He has collected a great number of 
works of art in Italy and France. It is said, 
however, that his fine taste has led to the loss of 
12,000 slaves, and that 3,000 only remain. 

22nd. Ouman. — Went in the morning to see 
the gardens of Sophiephka — with their cascades, 
grottoes, granite stairs, subterranean passages. 
The father of the present family of Potocki had 
200,000 peasants. His annual revenue was up- 
wards of 3,000,000 roubles. His estate has been 
divided into sixteen parts. Each son obtained 
about 15,000 peasants, and each daughter 5000. 
M. Lewchin, private secretary to Count Woron- 
zow ? and afterwards governor of Odessa, here 
informed me that the slaves cannot give evidence 
in a court of law against or for their masters. A 
slave, he said, will always speak in favour of his 
master, as he will naturally fear his vengeance. 



92 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



I could not learn whether a slave could give evi- 
dence in any case in a court of law against or for 
a free man. In the time of the old Count Potocki, 
the slaves were treated very mildly ; at present, 
they are squeezed in the most unmerciful manner 
— the number of days when they must labour 
being doubled ; great discontent everywhere. 

23rd.— We left Ouman and reached Stavistcha, 
a village belonging to the Countess Branicka— 
a beautiful situation. The colonel of the regiment 
of dragoons stationed here was arrested, and has 
died in the fortress at Petersburgh. It was said 
that he had a determination of blood to the head, 
and the chagrin produced by his arrest brought 
on a fatal attack of apoplexy. The brother- 
in-law of Prince Serge Volhonsky and General 
OrlofF, Nicolas Rajewsky, was lieutenant- colonel 
of the regiment; and on the 11th of June, 1825, 
I had gone from Biala Cerkiew to Stavischa with 
his brother, Colonel A. Rajewski to see a review 
of this regiment of dragoons. 

The following is the account given of this visit 
in my Journal: — 

This morning before daylight I left this place 
with Colonel A. Kajewski, in his caleche, to visit his 
brother, and to see the review of his regiment of 
cavalry. The morning was cool and pleasant; there 



THE EMPEEOR NICHOLAS. 



93 



were frequent and vivid flashes of lightning from 
a mass of black clouds in the east. The moon 
in the wane was shining brightly, and there had 
been a shower to refresh the parched fields. The 
nightingales were singing in great numbers in 
the woods and gardens of Alexandria. We 
passed through the village of Biala Ceckiew, and 
in no long time came fairly upon the steppe and 
drove rapidly along. In several places we passed 
a large number of the wagons of the country 
drawn up in squares, and the drivers around a 
fire in the centre, and the oxen grazing around. 
This is exactly the manner of the Tartars. These 
men go from this to Odessa, and still greater dis- 
tances, und fare in the same manner during the 
journey. There were a few houses upon the road 
for the entertainment of passengers, although this 
was a by-road. On the steppe for many miles no 
houses were to be met with. The peasants sleep 
all the night in the fields without any shelter, and 
do not return to their villages for a considerable 
period — for some weeks. We arrived at six o'clock 
in the morning at Stavische, We found the Lieut. - 
Colonel asleep. It is a village; the houses of 
wood and mud; the population chiefly consisting 
of Jews and peasants of the Countess. In the 
middle of it there was a handsome catholic church 



94 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



of stone ; the Greek church was a miserable wood 
hut. . Colonel Rajewsky was lodged in the house 
of a Jew ; his apartments very humble ; yet I was 
astonished to find a great collection of all the best 
modern books, on history, politics, and chemistry, 
and translations of the best English works into 
French. In this remote place, and in the midst 
of rude unlettered soldiery, this young officer, for 
he is only twenty-three, retains all his natural ar- 
dour for study, and has lost none of his natural good 
humour. I was happy to have an opportunity of 
seeing how a million of my fellow creatures pass 
their time. He was speedily dressed, and we had 
an excellent breakfast of tea, coffee, and eggs, &c, 
under the projecting roof of the house in the open 
air. All these houses have this, with a long 
bench constructed of hard earth and stones under- 
neath ; and on these the whole family is seated in 
the evenings. These poor peasants must take the 
same interest in one another that more civilized 
persons do ; indeed their attachments are said to 
be much stronger, and I was astonished to find 
that with slavery and all its evils they are just as 
much attached to their native soil as I am. A 
process has lately been going on here between 
the peasants and the Countess. They were once 
free men, when this country was a part of the 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



95 



kingdom of Poland ; but it appears they had lost 
their personal liberty before the lands were 
granted to the Countess, and they have no chance 
of regaining it. In this distant village, in the 
centre of the Ukraine, there are even in the 
hearts of these peasants aspirations after liberty. 
They have some men of superior talents, who 
even here take the lead, and who know well what 
their natural rights are. After breakfast Colonel 
A. Rajewsky went to sleep, and his brother and 
I went to see the military hospital and the camp, 
which is pitched on the highest point of a beauti- 
ful ridge, two versts from the village. The tents 
were all pitched, and the horses collected in 
squares formed by ropes, with their heads tied to 
them. The regiment is 1000 strong. There 
were seven squadrons, the horses of each in a sepa- 
rate square, and the tents of the men belonging 
to each squadron pitched close to the squares in 
which the horses were contained. There were 
six men in each tent. It reminded me very much 
of St. BoswelFs Fair, on the Scottish border ; 
the horses were tied up exactly in the same 
manner. The sick soldiers all lodged in one 
house : those who were able all rose when we 
entered^ as at Odessa. There were 35 sick out 
of 1000 men, and none of them appeared to be 



96 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



severely ill ; a considerable number of intermit- 
tent fevers, cases of scrofula, typhus; several 
accidents ; one of pneumonia, several of whitlow. 
The beds consisted of a coverlet and sheet and 
strong hempen bags filled with straw, a most 
uncomfortable thing for a really sick person. 
When the regiment changes its position, these 
bags are emptied, and the beds are not difficult to 
be transported^ the wood being light. Upon the 
whole, there was far less filth than I expected to 
find. This camp is only pitched for a few days, 
on account of the review. The officers' tents are 
large and double, and quite sufficient to keep off 
the rain. In war, these tents are not carried 
with the army. Officers and men bivouac in the 
open air without any shelter. In the severest 
weather this is the case, and it is astonishing how 
little injury is done by exposure to the cold. At 
two o'clock the Colonel of the regiment and four 
officers dined with us. The dinner was excellent 
in every respect, and I received, as an English- 
men, every attention and respect. The best 
French wines in abundance. At seven we went 
to drink coffee at the Colonel's ; the house beau- 
tifully situated. A fine view of the lake and 
woods on its shore. Several squadrons of horse 
came down to drink in the lake. The riders un- 



THE EMPEEOR NICHOLAS. 



97 



dressed, mounted, and made the horses swim to 
a considerable distance from the shore. It was a 
lively sight, the naked soldiers and the horses 
swimming in the lake. There must have been at 
least 400 in this situation. We again returned 
to the camp, where the tents w T ere completed. 
There was a large military band of trumpeters. 
The tent for the church was being erected. 

12th. — Went to the camp. The inspection 
commenced at 8 and lasted till 11 — the sun 
fiercely hot. With a General of Division I had 
some conversation, but he did not appear to be 
a well-informed man, though very civil. He had 
served with a regiment of light cavalry in various 
parts of the Continent. He said that the English 
cavalry were the finest in Europe ; that the army 
was so small and the country so rich that we 
could afford to keep our troops better than any 
other nation. He said that in Russia they wanted 
machines for their soldiers, not men too enlight- 
ened. During this visit not a word escaped from 
the lips of any individual which could have led 
me to expect what took place before the close of 
the year, or to anticipate the fate of the colonel 
of this regiment, who appeared to be a most 
amiable and kind-hearted man. 

26th March, o.s. ? 1826. Biala Cerkiew. — I 

H 



98 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



found Colonel X. Rajewsky on arriving here: he 
appeared dejected, as well he might. He informed 
me that Russia was saved entirely by the forti- 
tude of the Emperor Nicholas. Had he not been 
firm and determined, and the opposite party weak 
and undetermined, the fate of the family must 
have been decided on the 14th December. He 
went out alone and addressed his troops, who 
were not disposed to recognize him. He caused 
with difficulty the cannon to be brought to be 
fired upon the multitude, and it was not until 
night began to approach that it was done, and 
the mob dispersed. The whole designs of the 
secret society are known, said Colonel W. Ea- 
jewskv to the Government. It consisted of 200. 
Their intention was to destroy the whole Im- 
perial Family, to separate Poland from Russia, 
and to give Courland and the other German pro- 
vinces to Prussia. Finland to Sweden, and to 
establish a confederated republic similar to that 
of the United States of Xorth America : all titles 
to be abolished; the land to be divided into two 
equal parts, one half to be given to the slaves, 
the other to be worked by them for the Govern- 
ment. This was conceived to bear a resemblance 
to the form of government now existing in the 
United States. It is difficult to place any con- 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



99 



fidence in the statements which you receive on 
this subject. Colonel Rajewsky did not profess 
to know anything of the designs of the state 
prisoners beyond svhat he had heard by rumour 
at St. Petersburg, from which he had just re- 
turned, after a short confinement in the fortress. 
He remarked that St. Petersburgh was now a very 
interesting place, as you heard every evening 
what had occurred, what discoveries had been 
made in the designs of the conspirators by the 
Commission in the course of the day. 

30th March. — The following account of the 
conspirators was communicated to me by one 
personally acquainted with them, but who was 
very hostile to them, and who was probably 
ignorant of their views. 

The greater a man's natural talents are in 
Russia the lower does he sink. There is an utter 
debasement of character from the miserable des- 
potism which pervades all classes. MouraviefF, 
who went to Khiva, established no friendly rela- 
tions with the Khan. He was imprisoned forty 
days, and was with difficulty allowed to proceed 
onward to the capital, where he remained only 
two days. He saw nothing of the country, and 
could not give any account of its appearance, 
productions, or natural history, from his own 

H 2 



100 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



observations. He is a fool, but his cousins, who 
were men of merit, are all in the conspiracy. 
The second brother, who did not kill himself, as 
was reported, but was destroyed by the grape- 
shot, was a villain. He said, on quitting St. 
Petersburgh, I should not be sorry to see my 
father's head on the top of a pike in case of a 
revolution. There were four colonels who would 
have risen at the same time. Colonel Mouravieff 
wrote to them from VasselkofF that it was time 
to rise. Artaman Mouravieff received this note 
from his cousin Mouravieff at VasselkofF, but he 
did not forward it to the other colonels of artil- 
lery. Artaman Mouravieff, who wanted to kill 
the Emperor, is a bad man. He burnt the paper, 
so that the colonels of the artillery came and fired 
upon Mouravieff, though they were in the conspi- 
racy. All three who fired upon Mouravieff are 
now taken and in the fortress. Mouravieff is a 
man of character, and now, though he knows he 
will be shot, behaves like a man of honour. He 
was led by a fool. The property of the nobility 
would have been destroyed, but not divided, 
because at first all the civilized part of the nation 
would have been murdered, and for that reason 
all this project is horrible in the extreme. Pestel 
is a man remarkably vain, and easily flattered. 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 101 



He imagines himself another Buonaparte. The 
public welfare he had certainly not in view; 
and it is very doubtful if any of the others had, 
although many of them bear excellent characters, 
according to their friends. 

By another individual, who was well acquainted 
with Mouravieff, he was represented as one of the 
most respectable of the individuals engaged in this 
affair ; morally correct in his private conduct, fond 
of useful knowledge, a good brother and a kind and 
sincere friend, but possessed of a small portion of 
common sense. Pestel, he said, had few of these 
qualities, though much superior to all the others 
in talents, and particularly in acquiring influence 
over those around him. There were no means 
which he had not recourse to for this purpose, 
and particularly a species of flattery, so seductive 
that few could resist its influence. Four years 
before this a great dinner was given to the Em- 
peror Alexander at Tulcyn^ after a review. An 
officer demanded of another sitting by him, who 
was the individual who had the greatest influence 
here? He replied, the Emperor. No, said the 
other, it is that little man whom you see there, 
pointing to Pestel. In the constitution of Pestel, 
he proposed at one sweep to set all the peasants 
of the empire free: no preparatory steps were 



102 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



considered necessary, and he seems to have en- 
tirely disregarded the dreadful consequences of 
such a measure. He never, indeed, had the 
public welfare in view. The order for the arrest 
of Pestel, it is said, was made out before the 
death of Alexander. Mayborodka's denunciation, 
there is no doubt, reached the Emperor the even- 
ing we were at Aloupka. All the circumstances 
prove this. 

6-1 8th April, Tuesday. — During the last three 
days we have been passing through the most 
dreary forests. 

Tchernigow. — Around this town the cottages 
are numerous, and the ground well cultivated. 

Mohilew. — Here we crossed the Dnieper, now 
reduced to a paltry stream. All the low grounds 
inundated. This is the head quarters of what is 
called the Great Army, commanded by General 
Sacken. Count Woronzow went to the town 
with him, while we remained at a miserable 
Jewish trachteer's. The town is paved with 
granite, and presents a respectable appearance. It 
is built on the banks of the Dnieper, which are here 
very lofty. The corps of Davoust and the Poles 
advanced into Russia by this town, and followed 
the great road to Orcha and Smolensko. Little 
opposition was made to their advance, but during 



THE EMPEROR KICnOLAS. 



103 



the retreat they were dreadfully harassed by the 
Cossacks and light Russian troops. From this 
almost all the way to Petersburgh the road runs 
through an alley of birch trees. 

Orcha. — The road most infamous; the weather 
dreadfully inclement. The most wretched miser- 
able town possible. Through this Napoleon 
passed on his retreat. At the inn, we met two 
elderly gentlemen, one of whom was Mareschal 
of the Noblesse of the Government of Yekatrine- 
eslaff, nervous, reduced in health and spirits, as I 
was informed by those who knew him. He had 
been arrested and forwarded, like many other 
innocent persons, to St. Petersburgh. It appears 
that the prisoners, the persons actually culpable, 
have introduced the names of individuals who 
had nothing to do with the conspiracy, and a 
great number of quiet individuals have in conse- 
quence been dreadfully harassed. Most horrible 
roads from Orcha to the town where we slept, 
two stages from Witepsk. The postilion who 
drove us said, our horses are ruined by the num- 
ber of officers we are obliged to transport to St. 
Petersburgh. We crossed several rivers in this 
route. To-day we begin to approach the streams 
which take a course westward and run into the 
Baltic. We crossed the Dwina, a large navigable 
stream, before we reached Tchernigow. 



104 



THE FIEST DAYS OF 



Witepsk, a large town, with a greater appear- 
ance of civilization than in any since we left 
Odessa. 

11th, Monday. — Passed Gatchina and Tsar- 
koezeloe, and reached St. Petersburgh a little after 
mid-day. I was struck with astonishment at the 
grandeur of the quays, palaces, public buildings, 
and the bridges of granite over the canals, these 
lined with granite. Streets paved, the greatest 
cleanliness, and crowds of persons moving about 
in every direction ; all the bustle and activity of 
a great capital. I could not help contrasting this 
with the miserable villages and people I had left 
behind in White Russia. After dinner I went 
■with Colonel A. Rajewsky to take a sail on the 
Neva. He told me that 250 persons were impli- 
cated in the conspiracy. The Prince Volhonsky, he 
said, is lost for ever. But for the courage of the 
Emperor this plot must have infallibly succeeded ; 
and but for the want of direction on the part of 
those who revolted — they were completely with- 
out a man of head for directing them — otherwise 
confusion must have overspread the Empire on 
the 14th. We sailed along the quays of granite, 
built about eighty years before, and which ap- 
peared still very little injured. We sailed under 
the Bridge of St. Isaac to the Bourse, and from 
the point on which it stands saw at one view the 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



105 



fortress with all the buildings above it, and on 
the right the line of palaces and houses upon the 
quay. The sun was just setting, and its rays 
were beautifully reflected from the broad stream 
of the Xeva, and from the windows of the palaces 
upon its shore. The lines of Lord Byron came 
to my recollection — 

" I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs, 
A palace and a prison on each hand ; 
I saw from out the wave her structures rise, 
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand." 

13th April, O.S., 1826. — Admiral Greig came 
into my apartments, in the house of Count 
Woronzow, and sat with me nearly an hour. He 
said, after inquiring about the health of the chil- 
dren, that it would be a good thing if the Count's 
son could be sent to England to be educated, 
and particularly to Edinburgh, for the Scotch 
with all their prejudices, and he could laugh at 
them most heartily like others, were a more 
thinking people than those of any other nation ; 
and that nothing could exceed the presumption 
and ignorance of many of the young men edu- 
cated at the English Universities. The Admiral 
said much that was favourable of the Count's 
father ; of his personal influence with the English 



106 



THE FIEST BAYS OF 



Ministry; of his having served his country in the 
highest manner possible; that he returned to 
Russia at the beginning of the last reign with the 
intention of settling here, but that he found the 
Emperor so surrounded, and the nation so cor- 
rupt, that he saw no means of being useful, and 
retired to England : in consequence of which he 
is represented as a disaffected person. The Ad- 
miral said that he had remained here to see what 
the reception of the Count would be, and if he 
was likely to be in the confidence of the present 
Emperor. The Admiral said that the Count was 
the only man in the country who could presume to 
speak the truth to the Emperor, and that if he 
was ill received it would be the worst sign for 
Russia, and all might despair. The ministers no 
doubt disliked the Count. The Admiral had 
always thought that at the death of Alexander 
mischief wxmld occur to Russia, and that had 
Constantine ascended the throne general confu- 
sion and bloodshed would have been the conse- 
quence. He said the quays were all made by 
contract, and badly executed, and that in fifty 
years a great part will have given way. Each 
year the rock on which Peter the Great stands 
sinks a little into the marsh. The Emperor 
Alexander proposed to construct a quay on the 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



107 



opposite side of the Neva. I was informed by 
another party, that the expenses at St. Peters- 
burgh were much the same as at Paris ; that the 
capital is the very gulf of Russia, in which all 
its riches are swallowed up. Count K. has a 
revenue of 600,000 roubles, but he spends only 
200,000, and he is a rare, instance of economy. 
He lives half as a Russian and half as a foreigner. 
He has Russian slaves who serve in his house; 
he pays them as free people, that they may be 
always well clothed. There are perhaps eight or 
ten families that do the same at St. Petersburgh, 
but generally the Russians do as I had seen done 
in the south of Russia. The servants imme- 
diately about your persons, and those behind 
your carriage, are, perhaps, clean ; all the rest — 
is filth and beggary. Go no deeper. 

14th April, O.S. — This morning, Dr. John 
Prout, physician to Admiral Greig, called upon 
me at mid-day, and I went with him to view the 
different parts of the city. We proceeded to the 
Place St. Isaac. The Church of St. Isaac, it 
appears, has been built, rebuilt, and changed re- 
peatedly during the last three or four reigns. It 
was built by Catherine of marble, but was left 
unfinished when she died. Paul finished it with 
bricks^ and these still remain on the upper part 



108 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



of the building. Nash compared the reign of 
Catherine to marble and that of her son to brick. 
Alexander has made great changes upon it, and 
there are at present in the Place St. Isaac granite 
columns of an immense size, at least seven feet in 
diameter, intended for the gates. The fore legs 
of the horse of Peter the Great are pawing the 
north wind. The rock on which he stands has 
not been left in a rude state, but cut into an arti- 
ficial form. It has been broken into two pieces. 
On the west is the Senate House ; on the east, 
the Admiralty; on the north, the Neva. Along 
the south side of the Xeva, the quays of granite 
extend for several versts. Here is the English 
quay, the Palace of the Emperor, the Hermitage, 
the Marble Palace, the house of Admiral Rebas, 
with a hanoino; garden. On the north side of the 
Neva is the Great Island, on which is situated the 
Bourse, connected with the south side by a bridge 
of boats, 430 paces in length. Opposite the Bourse 
is the Fortress and Church which contains the 
remains of the Imperial Family. 

There are 250 persons implicated in the plot, for 
granting liberty to the slaves, obtaining a consti- 
tutional government to Russia, and destroying the 
Imperial Family, here immured and doomed to 
certain destruction. Death or exile for life await 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



109 



them ! This evening I went with Colonel A. Ra- 
jewsky to visit his sister the Princess Volhonsky, 
w r ho is overwhelmed with grief. She knows not the 
fate that awaits her husband. I am astonished at 
the insensibility of those around me. To-day at 
dinner were present the Count Woronzow, Counts 
Pahlen and Olezar, Admiral Greig and Colonel 
Rajewsky. When Count Olezar was in the 
fortress, he said, a serjeant was sent to shave 
those who were least implicated in this unfortu- 
nate affair. The Count wished to be excused, 
and said he did not require to make his toilet, 
and that he would rather be left alone, and not 
have his face handled in the manner this serjeant 
did. The serjeant replied, when we are flogged, 
they do not ask us whether we would prefer the 
right or the left side. 

15th, O.S. — The Duke of Wellington said, that 
if St. Petersburgh was the finest city in Europe, 
it was certainly the dullest. I begin to be of the 
same opinion, having already seen the exterior 
of all the great edifices. The affairs of Govern- 
ment are surrounded by darkness. Magnificence 
is mixed up with so much poverty and meanness, 
that it seems very imperfectly to conceal the slavery 
and misery which prevail everywhere. To-day I 
went with Dr. Prout to the Kasan Church, to wit- 



110 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



ness the ceremony of Washing the Disciples' Feet. 
There was a great ragged crowd ; few persons of 
rank or respectability. There was a sort of scaf- 
fold erected in the middle of the church, on which 
the Metropolitan and the clergy were placed. 
High Mass was repeated at the great altar, and 
after this the Bishop took off his robes. A great 
basin of water was brought upon the scaffold, and 
he preceded to imitate the example of Christ. 
There was nothing imposing in the ceremony ; it 
was, on the contrary, an absurd piece of folly. 
In this church is the tomb of KoutousofF, and a 
great many banners. After this, we walked to 
the Catholic Church where Prince Poniatowsky 
and Moreau are buried. The latter has a very 
small tablet on the wall erected to his memory ? 
stating that he was born at Morlaix, and that he 
died in 1813 at Liitzen. There was nothing rich 
or grand in this Catholic Church; on the contrary, 
poor, and few paying their devotions. The house 
of Count Woronzow large and elegant, and the 
entertainments sumptuous in the highest degree : 
Count Stanislaus Potocki, Prince Gralitzen, and 
other distinguished Russian noblemen, present to- 
day at dinner. The Duke of Devonshire is ap- 
pointed Ambassador from England during the 
Coronation, and Marmont, Duke of liagusa, from 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



Ill 



France ; and it is expected that they will soon 
arrive. Troops are already setting out for Moscow. 
The ceremony will not take place till the end of 
June. It is not believed that the ancient Russian 
dresses will be worn at the Coronation by any of 
those who perform the different services about the 
Emperor. Large masses of ice floating down the 
Neva. The Baltic is not yet open. The bridge 
of boats over the Neva has been replaced. 

It is not possible clearly to discover what line 
of conduct the Emperor is about to pursue. It 
does not yet appear who has obtained an influence 
over him. Count Araktchieff has certainly been 
repeatedly admitted into his private society, his 
secret society, and has dined with him at Tsarkoe 
zeloe, which does not augur well. 

17th. — To-night is a great ceremony in the 
Russian church, the Resurrection of our Saviour. 
Numbers of people dead drunk in the streets. I 
went w T ilh Dr e Prout, a little before midnight, 
to the Church of Kasan, which was crowded with 
people, each holding a lighted candle in the hand. 
The painting of our Saviour was removed behind 
the altar ; and soon after the priests, with crosses 
and banners, left the church in search of Christ. 
They formed a procession outside the church, and 
soon returned 3 then they went round its interior, 



112 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



exclaiming " Christ is risen P' The whole as- 
sembly then seemed to be seized with a religious 
frenzy, and began crossing themselves with great 
rapidity. At the moment when the resurrection 
was said to have taken place, guns were fired 
from the fortress, Great numbers of people 
came into the church, carrying bread to be 
blessed by the priests. The streets were illumi- 
nated, and crowds of people were passing along. 
On returning home the sky was red from the 
reflection of a house on fire, and the engines were 
hurrying along to the spot. I returned home at 
three o'clock in the morning. It was stated, that 
on the tables of most of the inhabitants of St. 
Petersburg!! the morning after this ceremony the 
paschal lamb is placed, which has been blessed by 
the priest, and that the head is cut off. 

18th. — I went to the English Chapel, and in 
the middle of the service was suddenly seized 
with a severe attack of the Crimean fever, from 
which I did not recover completely for some 
months. In the intervals of the paroxysms I 
continued my observations on St. Petersburgh. 

28th. — I went to see the house of M. Karishkin, 
Grand Veneur, the husband of the Polish lady to 
whom Alexander was so long attached, and for 
whom he had deserted the Empress, and literally 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



113 



broken her heart. The house had been fitted up 
with the greatest taste. I noticed a most beau- 
tiful picture of St. John, by Domenichino, and 
a great number of other pictures of no value. 

Mr. Landers, brother-in-law of the English 
Consul-General at Odessa, has arrived from Lon- 
don. He thinks it extremely probable that there 
will be war between Turkey and Russia. Cer- 
tain it is that the Duke of Wellington gained 
nothing like an assurance that war would not 
take place ; and soon after the Russian Govern- 
ment sent off what they call their ultimatum to 
the Turkish Government. The Turks will shut 
up the Bosphorus to all vessels in case of war. 
Mr. Landers, who had long resided in Odessa, 
observed that all the people here talk of the 
propriete of St. Petersburg!!. It is the masque- 
rade part only which is clean : the courts and 
lanes of the city are more filthy than it is possible 
for an Englishman to conceive. There is not a 
tolerable hotel in St. Petersburgh : they are dirty, 
poor, beggarly, and excessively expensive. The only 
possible means of living is to get into furnished 
lodgings. I enquired why there were not hotels 
kept by Germans and French. His reply was : 
the Russians are so dirty, that if good furniture 
were placed in the apartments it would soon be 

i 



114 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



completely ruined by them, so degraded are their 
habits. 

29th. — Beautiful spring weather : vegetation 
advancing rapidly. I went with Dr. Prout and 
Mr. Landers to the church in the fortress. The 
spire is slender and gilded. The tombs of all the 
Emperors from Peter I. are placed here. They 
are extremely simple : covered with a rich cloth 
of gold, and over this a common cloth. The 
Emperor Alexander is placed by the side cf his 
father. In this church is a great collection of 
trophies, Turkish, Persian, Polish, and Swedish, 
Near the door of the sacristy are some ivory 
images carved by Peter the Great. The fortress, 
like everything in Russia, presents a miserable, 
dilapidated appearance. Vast numbers perished 
in the construction of it, From this we went to 
the house of Peter the Great, the first house 
which was built at St. Petersburgh. It is a small 
cottage, consisting of two apartments and a small 
closet between: the whole in a state of ereat 
preservation. In the corner of one of the apart- 
ments is an image of our Saviour, before which 
lamps are kept constantly burning. This is the 
irnaie which Peter carried about with him where 
• hfi went. The cottage is inclosed in a larger 
one which protects it from the weather com- 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS, 



115 



pletely, and around it is a small garden, very 
neatly laid out. The trees and grass are in a state 
of fine verdure. The boat made by him is also 
here. 

It was a singular fact, mentioned to me by 
Admiral Greig, that the commission appointed 
by the late Emperor to devise some means for 
preventing the effects of future inundations, have 
looked at the papers of Peter on the subject, and 
that they have been able to devise nothing which 
does not appear to have entered into his consi- 
deration. No plan has yet been formed, nor does 
it appear that any can be suggested, except the 
formation of a great wall or dyke, similar to the 
dykes in Holland, which would completely de- 
stroy the appearance of the quays. From the 
house of Peter the Great I went to the Arsenal, 
where 1 saw them boring brass cannon : the whole 
of them beautifully formed. The machine was 
constructed by Baird and Clarke of the Lugar 
Iron Works. The cannon was turned round, not 
the instrument for boring the cannon; the whole 
driven by a powerful steam engine, also erected 
by Mr. Baird. There is here a great collection 
of guns for flying or horse artillery. Prodigious 
numbers of banners taken in war with the diffe- 
rent nations which they have conquered. A great 
variety of guns, cannon, plans of towns, Wiborg, 

I 2 



116 



THE FIEST DAYS OF 



Ochtchakow, &c. The uniform of General Milo- 
radowich ; a pistol-shot had pierced the blue rib- 
bon which he wore, and entered his side near the 
heart. I was told that he had never been 
wounded in all the numerous battles in which he 
had been engaged. All the orders of the late 
Emperor — the car in which his body was con- 
veyed from Kasan to the fortress— the horse 
stuffed which Catherine used to ride. I was told 
that stone of the bladder was a frequent disease 
here, and that there were surgeons Avho operated 
with great success in these cases. I did not see 
any of these operations performed, 

Mr. Landers read a letter from a relative at 
Ouinan, giving an account of an extraordinary 
transaction which had just occurred to a large 
proprietor. A soldier came about the first of 
this month into the court-yard with a great 
number of peasants armed with bludgeons, and 

arrested Mr. H , and committed acts of 

great violence. An officer passing came and 
demanded of the soldier by what right he did so. 
He threw the officer also into irons. It appeared 
that this soldier had deserted, and raised the pea- 
sants, who in this quarter of the country are 
everywhere ripe for revolt. Troops have been 
sent into all the villages to preserve order, and 
are quartered there* This spirit pervades the 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS- 117 



peasants in the south of Russia extensively. 
Several payoskys were brought into the court- 

yard; and all believed that Mr. H had been 

arrested by an order from St. Petersburgh. The 
proprietors in this part of the country had for 
some time before been gradually increasing the 
days of labour. 

1st May. — A revolt has taken place among the 
peasants at Luga. A report of this has been 
sent to the Emperor, and troops have been 
dispatched. It appears that a spirit of great 
disaffection exists among the peasants all over 
the empire, and a great many of the proprietors 
are so afraid of this that they dare not go, as 
usual, to spend the summer in the country. A 
general idea pervades the whole country, pro- 
pagated by revolutionary characters, that about 
the 1st of May the peasants were to be set free. 
In the afternoon went by water to Catherinehoff; 
the weather cold as during December in England. 
A great crowd of people on foot and in carriages 
and droshkies. A more striking picture of 
splendid misery I had never witnessed: a great 
mixture of magnificence and meanness. Some 
of the carriage-horses had harness of ropes, hay 
under the coachmen, wretched filthy drivers and 
servants behind. There were only a few carriages 
which could have appeared in Hyde Park without 



118 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



being remarked as excessively dirty and mean, 
Great bands of gendarmes. Little or no gaiety 
among the people on foot. At Elagen, where 
I went a month after, things w^ere very dif- 
ferent; I there saw many equipages of great 
splendour. In the evening Mr. Landers ex- 
pressed his belief that the Turks will evacuate 
the two Principalities of Moldavia and Wallaehia, 
to take away all ground of war with Russia. It 
appears the Russians have demanded the ratifica- 
tion of the treaty of Boucarest in the most insolent 
manner, and want, he thinks, merely an excuse to 
go to war, not knowing what to do with their 
army, and wishing to get rid of a part of them. 
The probability of the war is greatly increased 
by what I have heard to-day from Admiral Greig 
and from Sir James Wylie, who has received 
orders to hold himself in readiness for the war. 
After the news came that the Turks had acceded 
to the demand of Russia, I saw manifest disap- 
pointment in the visage of Sir J. Wylie. 

3rd May. — I visited the Marine Hospital with 
Dr. Leighton and Dr. Gibbs, and found the 
whole in very good order. Attached to this 
hospital is an excellent theatre for surgical opera- 
tions, which has been raised with a great deal of 
trouble by Dr. Leighton. Dr. Gibbs, formerly a 
pupil at St. George's Hospital, amputated above 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



119 



the knee for a diseased tibia in a dexterous man- 
ner. It was a general day of inspection, and all 
the surgeons connected with the hospital were in 
their uniforms, and all followed Dr. Leighton 
uncovered — the highest military order preserved. 
A more wretched set of men, about twelve in 
number I had rarely seen than these. I expe- 
rienced the greatest civility from Dr. Leighton 
and Dr. Gibbs, and was pleased to find that 
their views on most medical and surgical sub- 
jects corresponded with those entertained by the 
most scientific medical practitioners in London. 
Dr. Leighton told me that he often found the 
greatest difficulty in getting the German prac- 
titioners settled here to do anything rational, and 
that he was often compelled to quit patients 
altogether after long, absurd, and fatiguing dis- 
cussions. With Dr. Salaman I visited the wards 
under his care, and saw a large number, at least 
100 patients, with purulent ophthalmy, many of 
them with complete disorganization of the eyes, 
and a large number with a granular state of the 
inside of the palpeliae. He is accustomed to cut 
this off with scissors and to apply nitrate of silver 
and vinum opii. Leeches are not allowed in any 
of these cases. When he gets the disease in a 
recent state he bleeds freely. He applies cold 
water to the head, not to the eye. Afterwards 



120 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



he uses astringent lotions, yinum opii, and when a 
granular state exists, applies the nitrate of silver 
or removes the part by excision with curved 
scissors. The constitution of all the patients I 
saw appeared to be scrofulous in the highest 
degree, and I learned that they were badly 
nourished, dirty, and lodged in apartments where 
the air is foul. Purulent ophthalmia is not believed 
to be contagious here, and in a great public insti- 
tution for the sons of soldiers there is no separa- 
tion of the healthy from the diseased. 

At the house of one of the wealthiest English 
merchants I met this evening at dinner Mrs. 

p 3 a friend of the late Emperor and the 

chosen friend of the Empress Elizabeth. She 
informed me that the Empress had quitted 
Taganrog, and had travelled 200 versts the first 
day without fatigue ; that the physicians had been 
deceived respecting her disease; that her feet 
have begun to swell, and that water in the chest 
is now dreaded. Several of her family have died 
of water in the chest. Her Majesty was to 
arrive to-day at Kalouga. The climate of St. 
Petersburgh, the miserable state of Poland, and 
the justice of impressing seamen in England were 
some of the topics discussed. After dinner I had 
a long conversation w r ith a countryman on the 
state of Russia, where he had long resided. 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



121 



He was of the same opinion, as all with whom I 
had spoken, as to the utter profligacy of the 
Government and the hopelessness of any im- 
provement taking place. He said the Emperor 
had no doubt learned many truths which had 
never reached the ear of his brother ; yet it was 
doubtful what good would arise from this as he 
was not surrounded and aided by intelligent 
active men. He stated that there were at least 
4000 English in Petersburgh, and that the com- 
merce, instead of declining, had increased con- 
siderably since 1814. He told me that the 
manufactures of Moscow had attained great 
perfection, and that he thought, from the life of 
idleness which the peasants were obliged to lead 
the greater part of the winter, that manufactures 
might be introduced with great effect in Russia, 
and that they had a supply of the raw materials 
in perfection. CatherinehofF, he said, was almost 
entirely destroyed by the inundation of 1824, 
and General Miloradowich had it restored for the 
purpose of diverting idle people, a kind of re- 
source or lounge that idle people must have in 
summer. The sum required for the repairs was 
120,000 roubles. It is a miserable marsh. I 
told him that I had seen little gaiety there — 
nothing of those gaudy dresses and costumes 
which some authors had described. 



122 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



4th Majj O.s. — I went to the Hermitage, with 
Count Pahlen, Dr. Prout, and Mr. Landers, and 
saw all the paintings, 1300 in number, of Raphael, 
Titian, Salvator Rosa, Guido, Leonardo da 
Vinci, Murillo, Rembrandt. Rubens, and others. 
In this palace is the library of Voltaire, arranged 
as at Ferney, consisting of 6,760 volumes. There 
is also a library of history, containing 100,000 
volumes ; and another said to have been collected 
by Catherine for her valets to prevent idleness. 
There are here three statues by Canova — Cupid 
and Psyche, the Danseuse, and Hebe with the 
cup ; and several large vases of malachite and 
Siberian jaspar. I was introduced to Mr. Dawe, 
an English artist, and saw his gallery of the 
Russian Generals distinguished in the last war. 
He received from the Government 1000 roubles 
for each portrait. 

It appears that the trial of the state prisoners 
in the fortress has terminated, and that all the 
evidence, their confessions, and mutual accusa- 
tions will be laid before a number of judges, who 
will weigh the whole and determine what degree 
of guilt attaches to each. The names of those who 
conducted this important preliminary part of the 
trial were kept secret. The prisoners are to be 
divided into four classes. All who have been con- 
nected with secret societies are held to have been 



THE EMPEKOR NICHOLAS. 



123 



guilty of high treason, but a great many of those 
who did not contemplate the murder of the late 
Emperor will be confined some time in the for- 
tress as a sufficient punishment for their crime. 
Others will be shot or hanged immediately, and 
others sent into Siberia. Mr. Landers remarked 
that he should be greatly deceived if Nicholas 
did not turn out a great Tartar, and much more 
severe in his character than Alexander. I heard 
further reports of the dissatisfied state of the 
peasantry , and that they were almost universally 
ripe for revolt. 

5th May, o.S. — To-day I visited the Lunatic 
Asylum. Most of the individuals mad, raved 
about the Imperial Family, military colonies, 
governors, vice-governors of towns, adjutants, 
and soldiers. Some were upon their knees making 
the sign of the cross, and this occupation they 
followed all the day long. Each bed consisted of 
a sort of wooden bench, and close to each was a 
leather cord, like a piece of coach harness, which 
was fixed around their legs in cases of violence. 
It was said that no violence was ever used to 
these patients, and that a plan of medical treat- 
ment was pursued. A young physician walked 
around the wards set apart for the ordinary cases 
of disease, of which there were upwards of three 
hundred. He was a follower of Hahnneman, 



124 



THE FIRST DATS OF 



and ignorant of pathology in the highest degree,, 
calling every disease consumption which affected 
the lungs. He described a set of cases, which he 
called morbi agonici, in which individuals were 
brought without any hopes of living, and when 
he was accustomed to throw buckets of cold 
water over their heads, by which means he said 
he had saved the lives of several. A common 
case of epilepsy he called opisthotonos ; a simple 
uncomplicated case of mania he termed inflamma- 
tion of the brain, though the eyes were not red 
and no febrile symptoms were present. I saw 
several cases of scurvy. The gums were actually 
in a fungating state, there was a peculiar paleness 
of the countenance, and there were blotches on 
the legs. The Government gives 100,000 roubles 
per annum for the support of this hospital, and 
each patient on entering pays 10 roubles. Most 
of the patients are slaves, and this sum is paid by 
their masters. 

Marshal Marmont arrived on the 1st May, 
and entered by CatharinehofF during the pro- 
cession. It is said he imagined that all the 
people there assembled had come out to meet 
him. I do not suppose there is more truth in 
this than in the ill-natured report that the Duke 
of Wellington was badly received at Petersburgh, 
and lost a great sum of money at play. 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



125 



6th, O.s. — A fine warm day. I went to the 
Artillery Hospital to see the patients, under the 
care of Dr. Steen, a countryman. The wards 
were in excellent order. The term ^cardio- 
palinus," invented to denote palpitation of the 
heart by Sir J. Wylie, was applied to all the 
various diseases of the heart and great blood- 
vessels, which I was told were extremely common 
in the officers and soldiers of the Russian army. 
A vast number were classed under the head of 
chronic catarrh. It appears that among these 
soldiers there is a great desire for knowledge, 
and that they often teach one another. One 
soldier had a Psalter, which had been given to 
him by the Bible Society here, w r hich he was 
reading. On the blank leaf before the title-page 

there was written as follows : " On day I 

took the oath of allegiance to the Emperor 
Constantine Paulo wich." It was not said that 
he had taken it to the present Emperor. This 
man belonged to the regiment of Paul, which is 
said to be one of the most orderly in the whole 
service. Yesterday was the day on which the 
question of peace or war with the Turks was to 
be decided. If war, M. Minziaky was to have 
left Constantinople yesterday. 

7th, — Went to see the clinical wards of 



126 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



Di\ Salaman and the lecture -rooms and ana- 
tomical preparations of the Academy of Medi- 
cine. The chief preparations were those of 
Mr, Cruickshanks and Liebeekiin. Those made 
by the latter were beautiful and certainly very 
minute. The vessels of most of the different 
organs were placed under small magnifying 
glasses. 

9th, O.S. — News was received last night of 
the death of the Empress Elizabeth at Bielew, in 
the government of Orel. What strange events 
have taken place since I entered Russia ! Pre- 
parations are making for the coronation of the 
New Emperor. The prisoners in the fortress 
are to suffer before this, and now the death of 
another member of the Imperial family will arrest 
all these proceedings. To-morrow there was to 
have been a grand review of all the troops in 
Petersburgh before Marshal Marmont. This also 
has been put off. Lord Strangford observed to 
Mr. Landers to-day that in conceding as they 
had done the Turks had acted very wisely and 
had been well councilled. When the Russians 
sent their Ultimatum they declared that it had no- 
thing 1 to do with the Greek cause, and that in that 
cause they meant not in any manner to interfere. 
Lord Strangford observed in so doing they had 



THE EMPEROK NICHOLAS. 



127 



thrown away their birthright for a mess of 
pottage. 

10th May, O.S. — Beautiful weather. Went at 
six to dine with one of the wealthiest English 
merchants. Some remarks being made on sec- 
tarians and the Bible Society, the Rev. Mr. Law, 
a relation of Lord Ellenborough, said that though 
unconnected with the latter institution, he could 
not deny that it had done much good, and that 
the New Testament had been accurately trans- 
lated into the Russian language. This is the 
only part of the Bible he said which has been 
translated with the Psalter and published, and 
Mr. Cattley said that the Russians were ex- 
ceedingly fond of reading the Scriptures; and 
from what I had observed in the Artillery Bar- 
racks I had no doubt of the fact. Mr. Law 
further stated that, though the translation of 
the Old Testament had been prepared as far as 
the Book of Ruth for publication, and though the 
translation was faithful in the highest degree, yet 
the Metropolitan would not allow of its publica- 
tion, though permission had been asked and 
repeated frequently during the last eighteen 
months. It is now believed that there is an 
intention to suppress the Bible Society entirely. 
It is said this measure has originated in the fears 
which the Government entertain of proselytes 



128 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



being made from the Greek Church. So much 
for the liberality of the Government of this 
country in religion.* 

13th, O.S.— Yesterday visited Count StrogonofPs 
palace. It is large, but badly arranged. There 
is a large collection of Siberian minerals ; a 
gallery painted at Rome of one of Raphael's 
on canvas; several fine pictures, by Vandyke, 
Rubens, and others ; vases of malachite and rock 
crystal. The library, the only really comfortable 
room in the house. From this I went to visit the 
Academy of Arts. The building is considered 
one of the most classical in Petersburgh, the 
work of a Siberian. There is a great collection 
of busts, casts, &c, for the use of the students. 
Models of most of the temples at Rome in cork. 
Models of other modern buildings. There is a 
room in which all the portraits of the President 
are suspended. Here there is a portrait of 
Alexander by Gerard* 

14th, o.S. — Lady Strangford died early this 
morning. She was enceinte when she left London, 
and suffered most dreadfully from sea-sickness 
during the whole voyage to Petersburgh: she 
never afterwards enjoyed good health. Subse- 

* Soon after this the Bible Society was suppressed, Prince 
Galitzin, the President, dismissed, and all the foreign mis- 
sionaries ordered to leave the country. This was a bad omen. 



THE EMPEKOK NICHOLAS. 



129 



quent to her confinement she went out occa- 
sionally into society, but was not well. Lord 
Strangford said that his lady became ill because 
she forgot the difference between the climate of 
Petersburgh and Constantinople. 

15th, o.s. — Beautiful summer weather. Short 
nights. Most of the people here again in mourn- 
ing. The carriages covered with black cloth. 
I called on Sir James AYylie; he had just re- 
ceived a letter from Dr. Stofregen, giving an 
account of his feelings at the time of the Em- 
press's decease, and of the post mortem appear- 
ances. These were as follows; — Pretty extensive 
adhesion between the pleura pulmonalis and 
costalis on both sides of the chest, and between 
the pericardium and the diaphragm. The sub- 
stance of the lungs perfectly sound. The left 
auricle and ventricle nearly of the natural size, 
but the walls of the latter somewhat thicker than 
usual. The valves at the mouth of the aorta 
cartilaginous, the right ventricle six times the 
natural size and the walls thin as writing-paper. 
The valves at the mouth of the pulmonary artery 
are stated to have been ossified. The condition 
of the pulmonary artery and of the right auricle 
not stated, and nothing said respecting the aorta. 
The abdominal viscera sound. Also the contents 
of the skull perfectly sound. Sir J. Wylie before 



130 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



reading the letter said I will tell you what my 
opinion is respecting the actual state of the 
organs, and if you please you may write it down, 
which I did in short-hand as usual. Adhesions 
between the pleura ; no hydrotherax; induration 
and obstruction in the lungs; enlargement of 
the aorta and right ventricle. I consider the 
enlargement of the right ventricle as produced by 
the obstruction to the circulation in the lungs 
from induration of their substance. Adhesion of 
the pericardium, hydrothorax, or hydropericar- 
ditis cannot have taken place, because there was 
no room for it, from the adhesions and from the 
actual state of the inflammation which formally 
existed. 

16th, O.S. — A continuance of fine summer 
weather. Went to the English chapel, where 
the chaplain of the ambassador preached a funeral 
sermon for the late Lady Strangford. 

17th. — A duel was on the point of taking place 
between Admiral Greig and the Minister of 
Marine. A Commission has been sitting upon 
the state of the fleet at Cronstadt, and the 
Minister of Marine, Admiral Miiller, made some 
reflections on Admiral Greig which he could not 
endure. He sent a challenge which was ac- 
cepted, and the Minister of Marine procured as 
his second the Governor of Petersburgh, General 




THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 131 



Koutousoff. Count Woronzow was Admiral 
Greig's second. The Minister of Marine however 
did not come to the field. He sent the challenge 
to the Emperor, who it is said made no obser- 
vations upon it. General Koutousoff made his 
appearance on the ground to state that the 
Minister of Marine did not choose to fight. The 
Admiral, Count Woronzow, and Dr. Prout were 
all upon the field ready for action. How the 
affair has been settled I know not. It appears 
that the Emperor sent General Diebitch to Count 
Woronzow to propose some arrangement, but 
the Count was highly incensed, and used the 
expression that there were certain things which the 
Imperial power even could not settle : an expression 
which I thought reflected on him the highest 
honour. 

24th, o.s. — Lord Strangford returns to Eng- 
land. Count F. Pahlen, who has filled several 
important diplomatic situations out of Russia, and 
who is intimately acquainted with the English 
constitution and laws, has accepted the office of 
Governor of Odessa, and is to act as Governor- 
General in the absence of Count Woronzow. This 
morning I visited the Foundling Hospital. There 
were upwards of five hundred children here, most 
of whom were under the age of twelve months. 
The wards were large, airy, and clean. By each 

K 2 



132 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



bed was a little cradle suspended, in which the 
children were placed. Each child had a nurse ; 
a collection of such horribly ugly women I had 
never before seen. They were true Russians 
and Fins. The mortality was stated to us to be 
20 in 100 of all those admitted. In the hospital 
there were about fifty sick, but few with any 
serious malady. Sixteen were brought to the 
house this morning and deposited with the Swiss, 
and no questions whatever were asked respecting 
them. When they are vaccinated and weaned 
they are sent out to be brought up in the homes 
of the peasants. Twelve thousand are now in 
this situation. Most of the children I saw had 
some eruptive complaint, the effects of disorder of 
the stomach. Each nurse is paid one rouble per 
day during her residence in the hospital and 
receives her food. The whole expense of this 
institution was said to be one million of roubles 
annually. When reared the children are placed 
out in different professions. It is said that the 
girls turn out ill. A physician who had charge of 
part of the hospital had been reared in the insti- 
tution. I was informed by a surgeon that the 
greater part of the children brought up in this 
manner are much afflicted with the worst forms of 
scrofula. Germans and native Russians occupy 
saost of the medical offices in all the hospitals. 



THE EMPEKOB, NICHOLAS. 133 



25th, o.S. — I saw the subclavian artery tied 
this day successfully by Dr. Arendt, for axil- 
lary aneurism. I was informed that most of the 
great arteries of the body (the carotid, sub- 
clavian, external iliac, and femoral) had been 
tied successfully at Petersburgh by different 
surgeons, English, German, and Russian. No 
attempt had been made to tie the internal iliac. 

This day Count Woronzow was created a 
member of the Council of the Empire, and 
M. Longuenoff, one of his secretaries, an upright 
man, Vice-Governor of the Crimea. A Com- 
mission has been appointed by the Emperor for 
the formation of a new code of laws for the 
Empire, and a report is commanded to be pre- 
sented in two years. It does not appear that any 
attempt is about to be made by the Emperor to 
reform the civil administration of the country, the 
demoralizing influence of which cannot fail to 
continue in Russia while the Government does 
not earnestly take up the business. Count Wo- 
ronzow and every other enlightened and honest 
man must in time become disgusted with what 
they are compelled to witness without being able 
to afford any remedy.* 

* M. Speransky's new code of laws has been promulgated 
more than twenty-five years,, but the condition of the slaves has 
not been improved, and all the employes of the Government 
are represented, if possible, more v^nal and corrupt, and are 



134 THE FIRST DATS OF 

26th. — On the English quay, to the amuse- 
ment of all the world here, five English sailors 
were seen on a droshky, driving backward and 
forward, and playing every kind of absurd prank. 

29th. — This morning, at 9 A.M., with Dr. Prout, 
who had a letter of introduction from Admiral 
Greig to the Admiral of the Baltic Fleet, I went 
on board the steam-boat at Mr. Baird's to go and 
see Cronstadt. There were Russians, Germans, 
English, French, and Poles on board. We were 
struck with the vast extent of the moles of 
granite at Cronstadt. On the beach were at 
least six great ships of war which had been 
carried there by the inundation : one of 100 guns. 
Some of them they had begun to break up as 
utterly useless; others they had succeeded in 
getting into the water. A great part of the 
moles at Cronstadt is of wood, the remainder of 
granite, all resting upon piles; the fortifications 
towards the sea extremely strong. Opposite 
Cronstadt is another fortress of great strength 
called Cronslat. All ships of any size must pass 
between these before reaching Petersburgh. It 
appears that if the ships had been properly 
secured none of them would have been lost 
during the inundation. In the harbour for mer- 



characterised now as they were in 1825, as the greatest brigands 
and canaille in the Empire. 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



135 



chant ships no accidents happened, because they 
were better secured. It is said, that at no period 
within the recollection of persons here were there 
so few ships at Cronstadt as at this time, not 
only of English but of the ships of all other 
nations. The harbour at this season is usually 
crowded ; at present there is a great part quite 
empty. We immediately went to see Commodore 
Candler, an Englishman who has been in the 
service of Russia many years. He is advanced 
in life, and his constitution completely broken up. 
It appears there is to-day a great inspection of 
the fleet before it sails in a few days, and that 
the Emperor is about to pay it a visit. Admiral 
Crown who commands the fleet was a lieutenant 
in the English navy. He was sent out by Count 
Woronzow's father, and had the command of 
a small vessel. With this he used to infest the 
coasts of Sweden, running into their harbours 
and doing much mischief to them, so that they 
sent out a frigate to take him. He fought the 
frigate, and took her. He was immediately 
appointed captain of the frigate, and with this he 
took a 74-gun ship sent out against him. He is 
now Commander-in-Chief of the Russian squa- 
dron. We soon took leave of Commodore 
Candler, and went into a boat to get out to the 
fleet. All the admirals were engaged in the 



136 



THE FIKST DAYS OF 



inspection, so that Dr. Prout could not present 
his letter of introduction. We rowed round the 
"Gloucester/' which had brought the Duke of 
Devonshire from England. At the time all the 
Russian admirals and a great body of officers 
were on board the "Gloucester." When the 
Russian officers left her a salute of nine guns was 
fired, the echoes of which along the shore were 
very striking and produced a sound like the 
rattling of thunder. The ft Gloucester " had a 
round stern, and on this account she has been 
spoken against by all the people here, but she 
had the appearance from a distance of much 
greater compactness and strength than the Rus- 
sian vessels which were at anchor in a line 
opposite to her. In returning to Petersburgh by 
the steam-boat I met the Rev. Dr. Paterson, 
who, as a missionary, had traversed the Crimea 
and Caucasus as far as Tiflis. Dr. Paterson 
informed me of a new means which the Emperor 
has taken to discover the abuses which prevail in 
the different public offices. Two weeks ago a 
poor man presented a petition to one of the 
secretaries of General Dakin, with the view that 
it should be presented to the Emperor. The 
man returned after a time and enquired if it had 
been presented, when the secretary told him that 
nothing could be done unless he would advance 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



137 



2000 roubles. The poor man said that he had not 
2000 copecks, but that he would try to obtain it. 
He contrived by some means to get a petition 
presented directly into the hands of the Emperor, 
stating his case and the corruption of the secre- 
tary. The business was put into the hands of 
the Count Kutousoff. Two thousand roubles 
were given to the poor man, who presented them 
to the secretary. The numbers of the notes 
were marked, and immediately after the man 
had announced to Count Kutousoff that they 
were accepted, he sent a guard to arrest the 
secretary. At first he denied it, but on being 
told that the Governor knew even the number of 
the notes he had received, he confessed, or rather 
the money was found upon his person. The 
Emperor ordered a trial, to be finished in three 
days. He was convicted, sentenced to be de- 
graded, rendered incapable of ever holding any 
public office, and sent to Siberia ; all except 
the latter part of the sentence he suffered. 
Dr. Paterson told me that the Emperor had 
organized a secret police for the purpose of 
collecting information respecting these abuses and 
of everything that is said respecting himself and 
the Government, an account of which is to be 
presented to him without the names of the 
individuals whose opinions are related. A very 



138 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



excellent man is said to be at the head of this 
new species of police or inquisition. 

14th, o.S. — The funeral of the Empress 
Elizabeth took place this day. It had been 
rumoured that anonymous letters had been sent to 
the Emperor to inform him of another plot and to 
warn him to take care of himself on this day. 
This was probably the cause of His Majesty, 
with his Etat-Major, proceeding on horseback at 
a rapid rate, saluting each company of troops as 
he passed, before the funeral commenced. This 
consisted of a great number of the different 
tradespeople in black with small flags; lancers; 
a great number of girls belonging to the different 
schools patronized by Her late Majesty; a long 
procession of priests : a state carriage with eight 
grey horses : and a man in armour. The car was 
the same as that used for the Emperor. It was 
followed by the Emperor and Empress, generals 
and officers. Then a long line of cavalry and 
horse artillery. There was no music to enable 
them to march or impress their minds. The 
whole moved forward at a rapid rate, without 
much order or solemnity. Minute guns were 
fired from the fortress. The Summer Gardens, 
the houses looking to the Champ de Mars, the 
vessels moored along the quays, near the bridge 
which crosses to the fortress, were crowded with 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 139 



people. I returned home and prepared for my 
departure from St. Petersburgh the following 
morning. 

15th June, 1826, o.s— I left St. Petersburgh, 
for Moscow at 2 p.m. A cold north wind, with 
clouds of dust. Count Woronzow will set out a 
few days after, and go direct to Biala Cerkiew, 
and from thence to Akerman, where a congress of 
Turkish and Russian Plenipotentiaries is to be held. 
I proceeded to Moscow with General and Madame 
Narishkin and Mr. ArtemiefF. W e reached Tsar- 
koe-zeloe at 8 o'clock. The palace consisted of one 
great front and two wings, and presented a most 
imposing appearance, very far superior to any thing 
at St. Petersburgh. The north part, which had 
been burnt down on the evening when Captain 
Cochrane Johnstone was passing here to proceed 
to Siberia on foot, had been rebuilt. The pillars, 
columns, and pilasters of the chapel, were almost 
entirely covered with gold, and the paintings 
were of great beauty. This is the part which 
had been burnt down. The amber chamber was 
not burnt. I was not much struck with its ap- 
pearance. A great number of pieces had disap- 
peared from the walls. The floors of many of the 
rooms were beautifully inlaid with different kinds 
of wood, particularly cedar and nutwood. Many 
of the doors were of beech. Few or no good 



140 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



pictures. The apartments of the Einperor Alex- 
ander were in the same state precisely as when he 
set out for Taganrog. There was a great deal of 
simplicity in their arrangement. On a table in 
each apartment were materials for writing, and a 
small spy-glass. In his bed-room were his boots, 
fixed by a hook to his sofa ; his two swords, hat, 
and two pairs of gloves, at the side of a mirror. 
There was a small table near the side of his bed, 
on w T hich stood his dressing-case in leather. In a 
small cabinet adjoining this was his library. 
Among the books were several on the French 
Revolution and the Art of War, Sir Walter 
Scott's Novels and Lalla Rookh. There were 
several portraits on the walls ; one I believed of 
Madame Narishkin. The colonnade of Mr. 
Cameron is a work of great beauty. Around 
it was placed a great variety of statues ; but I 
had not time to examine them. The walks were 
in the highest order, and there were clumps of 
trees precisely like those in our English parks. 
There was an English farm close to the palace, 
where was a dairy, merinos, &c. 

From this we passed by Novgorod, Torzok, 
and Tver, to Moscow, where we arrived on the 
20th. The chaussee from Petersburgh to Nov- 
gorod was excellent. Twelve thousand soldiers 
were employed in constructing, the new road 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 141 

between the capital and Moscow. As a great part 
of the country was a marsh, it was necessary to 
raise a high earthen mound, on which the granite 
broken according to Macadam's plan might rest. 
Until we reached the Volga at Tver, on both 
sides of the road the country had the appearance 
of an impenetrable forest. Along the road sides 
were some large Tillages and some cultivated 
grounds, but generally the forests were quite un- 
broken. We met large herds of oxen from the 
south on the road to Petersburg!*, the drivers of 
which were the greatest savages I had ever seen. 
Of Novgorod I saw merely its general aspect, as 
I passed through it quickly. The old ditch and 
wall still remained, and many of the ancient 
churches. The state of the agriculture was 
wretched till we reached Torzok — the earth was 
merely scraped. The plough was drawn by one 
horse, a sort of miserable pony. Manure was 
spread upon the ground in grass by women, and 
then the plough set to work, but after all the 
greater part of the manure remained uncovered. 
The ground was generally poor and sandy. Be- 
fore reaching Torzok we passed the Valdi Moun- 
tains, which are of no great height. Here was 
some pretty scenery. Along the road from 
St. Petersburgh to Moscow were villages esta- 
blished which belonged to the Crown. Their 



142 THE FIRST DAYS OF 

inhabitants were called Yenisheiks, and possessed 
a species of freedom which other peasants did not 
enjoy; but I did not learn precisely in what 
respects they differed. They maintain the horses 
for the post. At each post station were at least 
1000 horses* I was struck with the multitude 
of the bearded savages who collected around our 
carriages on our arrival, and who appeared by 
their words and gestures to be disputing. I 
afterwards understood that they were disputing 
about who should proceed with us. In one case 
I saw them determine this matter by drawing 
lots. There was a boldness and force in these 
men unlike anything I had before seen in Russia. 
The houses had all gable ends to the road, and 
were built entirely of wood. The projecting 
gable ends of the roofs were generally carved ; 
the windows, generally three in number, also 
carved. Under these projecting roofs they sit or 
lie during the heat of the day, and many of them 
sleep during the night in their clothes and shoobs. 
I had seen at least a dozen, all lying heads and 
tails, with their clothes on in this situation — 
presenting in the morning early a disgusting 
spectacle. Many of the men, however, formed 
exceptions, being clean, intelligent, and in all 
respects civilized ; the appearance of the females 
improved as we approached Moscow. Torzok 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 143 



was a wealthy city. It was famous for its manu- 
factures of leather of various colours for boots, 
shoes, pillows, cushions, beds, which were dis- 
tributed over all Russia. Tver was a large 
populous city on the Volga, where there was an 
extensive commerce. 

21st. Moscow, Monday, o.s. — All the day I 
was obliged to remain at home, being weakened 
by the Crimean fever to a great degree. In the 
evening, however, I went to the Kremlin, which 
is but a short distance from Count Woronzow's 
house. I was not prepared for the grand scene 
to be witnessed from it. The whole city, with 
its numberless palaces and churches, was ex- 
tended out from the walls of this ancient resi- 
dence of the Tzars. Scarcely any marks were 
left of the conflagration during the French in- 
vasion. The house of Count Woronzow belonged 
to the Princess DaskhofF, and was left to him by 
her. This was also burnt, but has been com- 
pletely rebuilt, though not furnished* 

22nd. Tuesday. — No return of fever. Mr. 
Backmeetoff, brother-in-law of Prince Trou- 
betzkoi, called upon me, and shewed great kind- 
ness. Prince Gortschakoff, whose family I had 
attended at Odessa, was also here. He informed 
me that the public entrance of the Emperor into 
Moscow will take place on the 22nd July, four 



144 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



weeks hence ; the Coronation on the 6th of 
August, and the great public fetes on the 15th 
of August. This delay of the public fetes is 
said to be owing to a fast which falls at this time. 
At 6 o'clock I went with General Narishkin to 
see the preparations making for the Coronation 
at the Kremlin. We saw the hall of the palace 
where the banquet is held after the Coronation. 
It is an ancient low hall, of a gothic appearance, 
with a large pillar in the centre to support the 
roof. There was a throne erected in one of the 
corners ; the curtain suspended from the top of it 
was of purple velvet lined with ermine ; the throne 
covered with scarlet, not much raised above the 
level of the floor; walls covered with crimson 
velvet. The hall is not capable of containing more 
than 250 or 300. This hall is a part of the palace 
occupied by the Imperial Family when at Moscow. 
After this we traversed several suites of apart- 
ments, all fitted up within the last thirteen years. 
We saw the room occupied by Napoleon on the 
south-west angle, from the windows of which 
one of the finest views of this strange city can be 
obtained, and from which he beheld the progress 
of the conflagration. There was no trace of him 
to be perceived. Close to this is the building 
anciently set apart for the women, in a true style 
of eastern architecture. The distance from the 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 145 

palace, from which the procession will set outj 
to the cathedral, is only a few paces. The 
cathedral is very ancient ; the doors covered with 
paintings; the walls of the interior completely 
covered with them also ; many of them so decayed 
as scarcely to be visible* It is not a large church. 
The testament of the late Emperor was preserved 
in the sacristy of the cathedral, and was shut up 
in a pyramid, a box of gold and platina, about 
one foot in height, under a glass case. On the 
top of this was painted a human eye. The key 
was in the possession of the Governor-General of 
Moscow. In the centre of one of the domes of 
a church in the Kremlin, I think the Archange- 
lisk, the face of our Saviour is so painted that, 
place yourself as you will, he appears to look 
down upon you. It is a large dark visage. In 
this church of the Archangelisk are the tombs of 
all the ancient Tzars, down to Peter the Great. 
They are ranged, like those at St. Petersburgh, 
side by side, and are covered with scarlet cloth, 
all in a state of dilapidation and decay. Great 
preparations were here being made for the Em- 
peror ; and numbers of people employed in clean- 
ing the pictures of the saints. In the cathedral are 
various relics ; one esteemed of great value is one 
of the nails which fixed our Saviour to the Crass ; 
another is a little bit of the Virgin's shirt. These 



THE FIB ST DAYS OF 



churches were exceedingly rich, but were robbed 
of all their gold and silver by the French ; the 
greater part I suspect, however, had previously 
been removed by the Russians. Around some of 
the pictures are emeralds, and other precious 
stones, said to be of great value. From the 
Tower of Ivan I had a magnificent view of the 
city. The great Bell is near to this tower, about 
25 feet sunk into the earth. You must descend 
by a ladder to see it. It is covered with wood 
deals, and the rain enters freely; yet there does 
not appear much rust upon it. 

23rd. Wednesday. — At 8 this morning I went 
to the Hospital of Count SheremetofF to deliver 
my letter of introduction to Dr. Keir from Ad- 
miral Grreig. I found him in the hospital, which 
was in such a state of disorder, from repairs going 
on, that I could not see it completely. I visited 
however, one ward, which was large, clean, and 
well ventilated. The beds were of iron; each 
had two mattresses, and they were covered with 
white sheeting. One of the mattresses of straw, 
the other of horse hair, above this a sheet ; above 
the patient another sheet and coverlet, all clean 
and in the best order. It is more an alms house 
than an hospital. There are about 66 beds, how- 
ever, for the reception of patients from the town, 
under the charge of Dr. Keir. He had come 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 147 

into Russia in 1803, to be physician to the uncle of 
the Count the Chancellor, and remained with him 
until his death. He said that the Count Michel 
Woronzow was one of the most interesting young 
men he had ever known. In 1812, Dr. Keir was 
most anxious to establish himself in England: 
but he found it impossible, so great were the 
numbers of well-informed medical men in every 
town, and he was consequently obliged to return 
to Russia, where he married. Though in excellent 
practice, and physician to this hospital, he told me 
that were he able, he would not remain twelve 
hours in Russia. To an Englishman, he said, 
the practice in this country is the most disagree- 
able thing possible. In the nobility, you have 
generally to deal with mere spoiled children; 
persons full of absurd prejudices, and very desti- 
tute of information. Of the lower classes he said, 
the physician should constantly be accompanied 
with the knout, otherwise his orders will receive 
no attention. They have no education, they 
have no good example shewn them by their 
parents, or by any other; and in consequence 
almost all, without exception, are barbarous in 
their manners, and only to be commanded by the 
knout. I found Dr. Keir rather a little, thin, 
delicate man, above forty-five, and not in the best 
health. He has a house in the rear of the hospital. 

L 2 



148 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



He is Professor of Medicine in the Academy. He 
observed it was a singular fact, that formerly 
(twelve years ago) intermittent fevers were exceed- 
ingly common here, but since that time they had 
become actually rare. He allowed that a great 
deal of draining and cleaning had lately taken 
place in the town ; the consequence* I imagine, 
of the conflagration : one of the effects also of the 
burning of London in 1666. Other physicians 
in Moscow had observed the same circumstance. 
With regard to agues, he said, he found them inti- 
mately connected with atmospheric changes, and 
one of the first things he thought of was restor- 
ing the secretion of the skin by the warm bath 
and other means. The liver and spleen often 
became diseased, if these fevers are allowed to run 
on unchecked, and he recommended strongly half 
a drachm of cinchona every two hours in water j 
some port wine, a light diet, and calomel and 
rhubarb to be occasionally administered. Dr. 
Keir was two years Dr. James Hamilton's clerk 
in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 1799 and 
1800, and graduated there. 

In the drive which I took to SheremetofPs 
Hospital this morning, I had a good view of the 
town. The ground on which it stands is unequal^ 
gently rising and falling. On all sides you see 
the spires and domes of churches, and immense 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS* 149 



houses, white or green with gardens — at this 
season presenting the richest and most luxuriant 
appearance. Crowds of well-dressed people were 
proceeding to the churches to join the proces- 
sions, this being a holyday, In some of the 
streets I saw wretched houses and people, but in 
general they bore an appearance of comfort. In 
the Nikitka, where I live, are several of the 
houses of the old nobility — Dolgorouky, Mackoff, 
&c. The Palace of PashkoiF presents from the 
Kremlin a most beautiful appearance. I visited 
the great riding- school at the gate of the Kremlin. 
At the base of the brick wall which surrounds 
the Kremlin on the north side, are the Imperial 
Gardens, where were numbers of people walking 
and reposing on the benches. The Kremlin is, I 
suppose, more than two versts in circumference. 
It is entirely surrounded by a wall of brick, 
with little turrets at the top* It encloses a 
great variety of churches^ the Palace of Justice, 
the Arsenal^ the Imperial Palace, and Public 
Offices of various descriptions. 

The little river Moskwa is almost close to the 
wall on the south side, the road only intervening. 
It is a small sluggish stream. General Narishkin 
told me, that he was sent to the French Army as a 
parlementaire, and was taken prisoner about six 
versts from Moscow. One of the French officers 



150 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



told him that orders had been given to blow up 
the Kremlin, and that the report of a cannon 
would be the signal for the explosions. A very 
short time afterwards the report of a cannon was 
heard, and it was succeeded afterwards by three 
tremendous explosions. The Arsenal, which was 
blown up by one of these, is now being rebuilt. 
In this country the people are forced into artifi- 
cial classes, which do not exist in other countries, 
and those endless varieties so useful to the well- 
being of society and so ornamental to it, are pre- 
vented altogether from being formed. But while 
the state of vassalage exists, it is impossible that 
this country can ever become civilized in the true 
sense of the word. Education never can be 
extended to the serfs by their present proprietors, 
and if it were, they would ere long shake off the 
yoke. Even if the Emperor would permit this, 
there is not a sufficient degree of principle and 
good sense among the nobility to adopt and fol- 
low any general measure for the education of the 
mass of the people, which is absolutely necessary 
to any lasting improvement. 

I observed to General Xarishkin, that there 
must have been a combination of the nobles, mer- 
chants, and others, to set fire to the city. He 
said he had seen a letter from the intendant of a 
nobleman to Count Restopschin, expressing his 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS, 151 



regret that the house of his master would not 
burn, though he had done all that was possible to 
set it on fire. It is very extraordinary that this 
transaction should still remain secret, seeing that 
it must have been entrusted to so many for its 
execution, and that its success warranted in some 
measure the exposure of all its details. The 
Russians never come within sight of a church 
without taking off their hats and making the sign 
of the cross. The postilion before mounting the 
coach-box does the same, and this is also done 
after meals. In the Kremlin I saw some persons 
before some pictures, placing their heads on the 
ground, then rising and crossing themselves with 
a fervour which was quite astonishing ; they went 
on doing so until exhausted by fatigue. 

24th. Thursday. — Still very weak from fever. 
In the evening I drove to the public gardens, 
called the Three Mountains, a short way out of 
Moscow. You descend a small hill to reach the 
garden. It was crowded with persons of every 
description. The Mougiks were drinking and 
gambling on a plain before the garden, and were 
as noisy as they usually are on such occasions. 
In the gardens, the people consisted chiefly of the 
middling classes, all well dressed; most of the 
young women painted, with large diamond ear- 
rings; pink dresses were the most common. Young 



152 



THE FIRST BAYS OF 



ladies of good complexion, and apparently in 
good health, had all their teeth black. I ima- 
gined at first that it must have been done on 
purpose. It is said to be the effect of the lead 
and other metals in the paint they use. This 
explanation was not satisfactory. In the gardens 
there are lakes and islands formed artificially. 
Along the sides of these were seated many a 
happy group, eating ice, and fruit, and the other 
delicacies of the season. I drove from this gar- 
den to the Kremlin, where they were performing 
vespers in two of the churches, and tolling the 
great bell in the tower of Ivan. In one of the 
churches the music was superior to any I had 
heard in Russia. The view of the city in the 
calm setting sun was truly enchanting. 

25th. o.s. — Recovering slowly from fever. A 
very valuable copy of Hippocrates sent to me by 
Colonel NorrofF as a present. Dr. Keir called 
upon me ; he said he did not know of any case 
where an artery had been tied for aneurism at 
Moscow except one — a case of popliteal aneurism 
where the superficial femoral artery was tied 
with one ligature : it succeeded perfectly. Aneu- 
rism is rare here ; at least he has seen few cases 
of it. The carotid, subclavian, external iliac, 
have never been tied, to his knowledge, at 
Moscow, He complained of the severity of the 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



153 



winters, and of the injury to the constitution 
produced by several hours' exposure to the 
intense cold. M. Bachmeetoff stated that Russia 
was never in a worse condition; trade almost 
annihilated, and no money to be obtained for any 
kind of produce. The peasantry generally highly 
discontented, and almost ripe for revolt. The free 
peasants, those of the Crown, are in the worst con- 
dition. Their idea of freedom is, that they are to 
be exempted from paying all duties to the Crown ! 

In the evening I went to the Diebitchi Monas- 
tery, in the environs of Moscow. It is sur- 
rounded by a wall with turrets like the Kremlin. 
At each angle is a round tower, and square 
towers at short distances on the wall. A hand- 
some church stands in the centre, with gilded 
domes, precisely similar to many of those in tho 
Kremlin. Around this church are many graves, 
and tombstones with inscriptions. On the right 
hand of the gate where you enter is the house 
where the sister of Peter the Great, Sophia, was 
shut up. This is a convent for ladies, but I saw 
none; and within the walls there were, besides 
the churches, only a few wretched low buildings. 
We drove a short distance farther, when we 
reached the river Moskwa. Crossing it, we 
ascended a hill on the opposite bank, from which 
we had a fine view of Moscow, the Dievitchi and 



154 THE FIRST DAYS OF 

Donskoi monasteries, an old palace among the 
trees, near the river, on a height, and a great 
deal of the country around Moscow. The sun 
was going down. All the bells of the Kremlin 
and of the ^different churches were ringing, this 
being the birth-day of the Emperor Nicholas. 

26th. Saturday. — Considerably recovered from 
fever. The public entrance of the Emperor will 
certainly take place on the 22nd July. As I 
have seen all the preparations for the Coronation, 
and heard a description of the various parts of the 
ceremony, I feel no disappointment in not witness- 
ing it. Having seen the Coronation of George 
the Fourth, my imagination will supply readily 
what I have not seen here. This day I visited 
the building in the Kremlin where all the crowns 
of Russia, dresses, &c, of the former Tzars are 
kept; the crowns of Poland, Georgia, Kazan, 
Archangel, Lithuania, are ranged under glass 
covers around the room. A great quantity 
of gold and silver plate is here also displayed on 
shelves, and in glass cases are the various orna- 
ments worn by the Emperors. The thrones are 
also disposed in the same apartment, and contain 
a large quantity of precious stones, superb 
turquoises ; coronation chairs from Peter I ; 
Museum of Antiquities ; Imperial globe ; the 
sceptre and ancient ornaments of the Tzars. 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 155 



30th. — Quitted Moscow, and took the Kalouga 
road to return to the south of Russia. This 
journey occupied eight days and seven nights, 
but the fever did not return ; on the contrary, I 
gained strength rapidly as I advanced to the 
south through the governments of Kalouga^ Orel, 
Tchernigow, and Kief, to Biala Cerkiew. In all 
this line of road, 980 versts, I did not see one 
prosperous town or village, nothing like wealth 
or industry ; but, on the contrary, starvation and 
rags in the midst of plenty; the tracteers and 
post horses wretched in the highest degree. 
Everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, these 
vast plains were covered with the richest crops 
of rye, and other grain, ready for the sickle. 

14th July. Biala Cerkiew, near Kief, on the 
Dnieper. — I have heard nothing respecting the 
conspirators at St. Petersburgh ; but it is more 
than probable that their doom will be sealed 
before the Coronation. It is not impossible that, 
for the sake of acquiring popularity, a pardon 
may be granted even to the most culpable — none 
of them having^actually raised their hands against 
their sovereign. The Emperor having become 
popular from the manner in which he conducted 
himself on the 14th of December, may have 
acquired a taste for it, and will possibly, as an 
act of signal mercy, pardon most if not all the 



156 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



individuals implicated. There is no doubt, if I 
may credit what has been stated to me on the 
best authority, that his Majesty is one of the most 
false characters that exists, and that he has a very 
unforgiving disposition. It is only the popularity 
he has acquired at his accession which has given 
him the disposition to that generous line of con- 
duct which it is said he is pursuing. It is not 
natural to him, and it is feared that it will not 
continue during the whole of his reign. At pre- 
sent, the conspiracy appears to have had some 
effect upon him; but if once its influence should 
be lost, and his love of popularity pass away, his 
reign will be one of severity and persecution. The 
want of a free communication by water in Russia 
must retard its advancement. In such a vast 
empire there are only the rivers Neva, Volga, 
and Dwina, which afford a free communication 
with the interior. The Dniester, Dnieper, Don, 
and Bug, are not navigable to any great extent. 
One thing wanting to Russia is a simple good 
code of laws, and the honest administration of 
justice. Another is the liberation of the slaves, 
publicity of trials in courts of law, and freedom 
of the press. As things are, it is perfectly clear 
that ages must elapse before any great improve- 
ment take place upon the people of this country. 
26th, — News arrived the day before yesterday, 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS* 157 

from St. Petersburg]}, that sentence has been 
pronounced and executed upon the individuals 
implicated in the late conspiracy* On the morn- 
ing of the 13th, Pestel, Mouravieff, RyleiefF, 
Kakhofsky, and Bestoucheff Roumine, were 
hanged on a gibbet, on the rampart of the for- 
tress, in a public manner. They all died with 
courage. On the same day, 120 of the prisoners 
were degraded by having their swords broken 
over their heads by the public executioner, and 
sent off to Siberia, where they are condemned to 
hard labour, some for their lives and others for 
twenty years — to perpetual exile. It is supposed 
that this part of the sentence, forced labour, will 
be remitted after the Coronation. The Emperor, 
it is said, did not specify the punishment to be 
inflicted, but left this to the commissioners, who 
ordered that those who have been hanged should 
be quartered. The Emperor commuted this 
horrible sentence into hanging, which is a new 
mode of inflicting death in Russia, and considered 
most degrading. They were, it is said, con- 
demned to hang upon the gallows the greater 
part of the day, but their bodies were soon taken 
down after they were dead. There was no 
tumult nor disorder. It is reported that Pestel, 
in the hope of escaping, had become denunciator, 
and revealed the whole proceedings of himself 



158 THE FIRST DAYS OP 

and his accomplices/ and that Mouravieffand all 
the others did the same. Pestel, it is further said, 
affected agreat admiration for the character of the 
present Emperor. On account of his revelations, it 
is said, truly or falsely, that the guilt of all the others 
was clearly brought to light, and that he became 
the object of the hatred and contempt of all. 

28th. — It is rumoured that the ropes by which 
Ryleieff and Mouravieff were suspended broke . 
the former was in a state of insensibility, but the 
latter remained conscious, and fell upon his feet. 
He supposed, it is said, that the rope was made 
weak on purpose to save him, and, in the hope of 
preserving his life, he shouted God save the 
Emperor and Eussia ! 

5th August, o.s. — The fight between the regi- 
ment of Tchernigow and the other troops took 
place about ten versts from this place, Biala 
Cerkiew. Many of those who were made pri- 
soners were brought into this village, and have 
been here ever since. A commission was ap- 
pointed to try them, and 60 have been sentenced 
to be flogged. The punishment took place this 
morning, in a field close by this village, between 
9 and 10 o'clock. 1,000 soldiers were drawn up 
in line, each with a small wand of the shoot of a 
nut tree, and the prisoners were passed along this 
line and received a switch from each soldier. I 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 159 



did not arrive until the punishment had been 
inflicted^ but I saw about 20 of those who had 
undergone the sentence. They looked pale, but 
all seemed gay, and some laughing aloud. They 
were in a small square, formed by soldiers with 
guns and bayonets, but all were standing, and 
all marched off the ground without assistance. 
Carts with straw were waiting to carry away 
those who might have been disabled. The surgeon 
of the regiment told me that it was not meant to 
be a severe punishment, as they had been seduced 
from their duty by their officers. A great number 
of Jews, men and women, were close to the scene 
of action, many of whom, indeed all, shewed 
their sympathy for the sufferers. The prisoners 
for the last four months have been stationed in 
the houses of the Jews, each with a soldier to 
guard him. A gibbet is to be erected at Vassil- 
koff, and all the officers of the regiment who took 
part in the revolt are to have their swords broken 
over their heads underneath it, and afterwards to 
be sent to Siberia for life. The names of those 
officers who belonged to the regiment and who 
have already received their sentences at Peters- 
burgh, will be hung up upon this gibbet. 

A French translation of the report of the 
Commission of Inquiry of St. Petersburgh, on 
the conspiracy and revolt of 1825, dated 30th May, 



160 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



1826, was printed, and a copy presented to me 
by a military officer who had been some time a 
prisoner in the fortress. This official document 
was signed by Tatishcheff, Minister of War ; 
Michael, Master of the Ordnance; Prince Galitzin, 
Privy Councillor; GolenistchelF Kutousoff/ Mili- 
tary Governor of St. Petersburgh; Tchernycheff, 
General j Benkendorff, General ; Levacheff, 
Aides -de - Camp Generaux ; and countersigned 
BloudofF, Councillor of State. In this report it 
is stated, that !i almost invariably its conclusions 
have been based on the confessions of the detected 
themselves, or on documents written by their 
hand, regarding the depositions of their accom- 
plices, and all other testimonies, as subsidiary 
means of conviction, or as simple indications of 
the course to be pursued in the examinations and 
ulterior inquiries." From this report it appeared 
a that in the year 1816 some young men returned 
from abroad after the campaigns of 1813; 1814, 
and 1815, and acquainted with the political 
tendency of several secret societies then existing 
in Germany, conceived the idea of establishing 
similar associations in Russia." In February, 
1817, the first secret society was formed under 
the title of "Union de Salut, or des Vraies et 
Fideles Enfans de la Patrie." The leading mem- 
bers were Alexander and Nikita Mouraviefl, 



THE EMPEROR 1STICHOLAS. 



161 



Prince Troubetzkey and Pestel, by whom the 
rules were drawn up. Four of the prisoners 
during the trial declared that " from the outset 
the object of this society was a change in the 
existing institutions of the Empire. 55 Prince 
Troubetzkey affirmed, " that the principal sub- 
ject of discussion when they met w T as the means 
for working out the good of the country ; for 
co-operating towards the accomplishment of 
every useful design, if not by active exertion, at 
least by a strong expression of approval; for 
contributing to the repression of all abuses, by 
publishing every censurable act committed by 
employes undeserving of the national confidence ; 
but principally for increasing the strength of their 
society by the acquisition of new members, whose 
talents and moral qualities should be proved by 
previous information, and who should even undergo 
some trial. 55 

At this very time General Michael Orloff was 
occupied, in conjunction with Count MamonofF 
and the Councillor of State Nicholas Torquenoff, 
in founding a society "the sole object of which 
should be to put an end to the exactions and 
other abuses which had crept into the internal 
administration of the empire, an intention which 
he proposed to submit for the approbation of His 
Imperial Majesty. 55 u However his plans were 

M 



162 



THE FIRST DAY3 OF 



ineffective, and the association of which he had 
conceived the idea was never formed.*" 

The first part of the regulations of the Union 
du Bien Public was discovered by the Commis- 
sion, and contained in the Report, and is as 
follows : ¥ The principal provisions of the Code 
du Bien Public, the division of subjects, the most 
remarkable ideas, and even to the very style, 
show an imitation and in great part a transla- 
tion from the German. The authors declare, in 
the name of the founders of the association, th?vt 
the good of the country is their sole object — 
that this object can have nothing contrary to the 
views of Government ; that Government stood in 
need of the concurrence of individuals; that the 
society which they organized would be to it an 
auxiliary for effecting good; and that without 
concealing their intentions from citizens worthy 
of participating in them, they would pursue their 
labours in secret, solely to avoid the misrepre 
sentations of hatred and malevolence. The mem- 
bers were divided into four sections or branches. 
Each member was to inscribe himself in one of 
these sections, without, however, refusing to take 
any part in the labours of the others. The first 
section had for its object philanthropy, or the 
advancement of public and private benevolence. 
Its duty was to watch over all charitable institu- 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 163 



tions, and to point out to the directors of such 
establishments, and also to Government itself, the 
abuses which might creep in, and the means for 
remedying them. The object of the second section 
was intellectual and moral education, the exten- 
sion of enlightenment, the foundation of schools 
especially on the Lancasterian system, and gene- 
rally a useful co-operation for the instruction of 
youth, by virtuous examples, by discourses and 
writings analogous to such views, as also to the 
ends of society. To the members of this second 
section the superintendence of all schools was 
confided. They were to inspire youth with the 
love of everything national, and to oppose as 
much as possible the notion of educating them 
abroad and all foreign influence. The third 
section was required to give especial attention to 
the proceedings of the tribunals. Its members 
engao-ed not to decline anv judicial functions 
which might be offered to them by the choice of 
the nobility or by the Government ; to fulfil such 
functions with zeal and precision ; to observe 
carefully the progress of affairs of this nature: 
to encourage upright employes) even by granting 
them pecuniary aid ; to strengthen in good prin- 
ciples those who might betray any weakness ; to 
enlighten those who were deficient in information: 

M 2 



164 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



to denounce prevaricating functionaries, and to 
apprise Government of their conduct. Finally., 
the members of the fourth section were to devote 
themselves to the study of political economy; to 
attempt the discovery and the definition of the 
immovable principles of national wealth ; to con- 
tribute to the development of all branches of 
industry ; to strengthen public credit ; and oppose 
monopolies." 

In 1819 General Orloff, who had joined the 
Union du Bien Public, Ct sent in a written declara- 
tion to the effect, that he would no longer belong 
to the society, and firmly persisted in this deter- 
mination notwithstanding the remonstrances and 
entreaties of his colleagues, yet subsequent to the 
trial in 1826 he was dismissed from the service, 
although it is not stated that he had any further 
connection with secret societies. At length, in 
the last days of February 1821, it was agreed at 
a general meeting that the Union should be 
dissolved; and Torquenoff, in his capacity of 
president, announced in the name of all the depu- 
ties assembled that the society was completely 
and unavoidably dissolved, (s both on account 
of the difference of opinion shewn among the 
members, and in order not to rouse the suspicions 
of Government." Other societies were formed, 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 165 



the object of all which it is stated in the Report 
was to " overthrow the existing order of things " 
by " the employment of an armed force."* 

7th. — A Russian nobleman, who considers 
himself possessed of first-rate talents, predicted 
the ruin of Great Britain from steam-boats. He 
said Buonaparte would have succeeded in his 
invasion of England had steam-boats been in use 
at that time. I observed that the French had no 
coals upon the coast, and were prodigiously behind 
us in all respects in the construction of steam- 
engines. He replied, that a man with Buona- 
parte's resources could have brought coals from any 
distance, and would soon have become superior 
to us in the construction of steam-vessels. I re- 
plied that he had all the resources of France at 
his command, yet he could never equip a fleet 

* On my return to England, January 1827, I presented a 
copy of this Report of the Commission of St. Petersburgh to the 
editor of the posthumous Travels (by my lamented friend James 
Webster, Esq.) through the Crimea, Turkey, and Egypt, and an 
English translation of this document was appended to the second 
volume of that work, published in 1830. It has been justly ob- 
served by a recent writer that this document was nothing but an 
indictment drawn up after a hasty inquiry carried on in secret, 
and had in itself no virtue of proof belonging to it, Doubtless 
a few of the individuals implicated in this conspiracy were 
animated with true patriotism, but if the report be not entirely 
false it is impossible to deny that the greater number of the 
accused were treacherous to one another, and guilty of perjury 
and treason to an amount of which it would be difficult to find 
a parallel in the history of any other European nation. 



166 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



which had the least chance of subduing the fleets 
of Great Britain, even when Spain and Holland 
were joined to his navy. 

9th. — Engaged in reading Karamsin 5 s History 
of Russia, which presents a picture of superstition, 
treachery, and murder, such as cannot be equalled 
perhaps in the annals of any other country. 

12th. — There can be no doubt, if general report 
is to be credited, that the nobility of this country 
are every year becoming more poor and depressed. 
In Russia there are at least forty millions of 
slaves. It is not supposed that the conspirators 
used any means to mislead the peasantry — they 
are sufficiently ripe for rebellion, and require no 
efforts of that kind. They are held in subjection 
by the army alone, many of the regiments being 
quartered throughout the country at convenient 
distances from the great villages, into which the 
slaves are congregated and kept unarmed. In a 
regiment of lancers at Moscow there has very 
lately been a serious disturbance, and the colonel 
was almost assassinated. This arose from the 
Grand Duke Michael ordering this regiment to 
be drilled every day. I have been told that the 
Emperor and the Grand Duke Michael are not 
enlightened men. They have no knowledge of 
the actual state of the country, and it is believed 
that the Emperor will not have the good sense to 



THE EMPEItOB NICHOLAS, 



167 



call around him independent men — men of in- 
tegrity. He is too jealous of his power to entrust 
any part of it to others. The cause of liberty is 
lost for a great period in this country, by the 
wretched conduct of the individuals who com- 
posed these secret societies, and by the unprin- 
cipled character of their proposals. Many were 
men actuated by the worst principles of French 
politics and morality, and they did not possess any 
of the courage in the time of danger which the 
French showed at the Revolution. Khahoffsky it 
is said wept like a child when condemned to death, 
and lamented the fate of his poor parents. Pestel 
behaved with courage, but became a denunciator, 
and told all that had passed between him and his 
associates, though sworn to secrecy by the laws of 
the society to which they belonged. Indeed 
Russia could have gained nothing by such men. 
A state of fearful anarchy would have been all 
that could have followed for a time, but out of 
this the slaves might have come with their chains 
broken from their necks. If the country remain 
long at peace, the population will increase and 
wealth will accumulate, and a middle class perhaps 
will slowly rise into existence. That for ages they 
will ever approach in civilization the other people 
of Europe is however extremely doubtful. It is 
impossible now to predict the fate of this country 



168 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



more than it was at Taganrog last year. The 
death of the Emperor Nicholas might throw all 
into confusion. The foreign influence of Russia 
must have been considerably diminished by late 
events, and she will not again for a time play 
the same part in Europe that she formerly did. 
In Asia it is probable she will still further ex- 
tend her conquests, especially in Persia, where 
General YermolofF, on the frontier, has been 
extremely busy, if reports are true, in provoking 
war, and now Russian troops in large bodies are 
proceeding to the Caucasus. The greater part of 
the higher classes — I mean the proprietors of land 
and slaves — are utterly disqualified by their igno- 
rance, gross prejudices, and superstition, from 
introducing a better order of things into the 
country. There are few of them who know even 
the first principles of politics, political economy, 
or ethics; and some of them will attempt to draw 
a comparison between the Government during the 
Roman republic and the constitutional Govern- 
ment of Great Britain, aud even prefer the former. 
I have enquired wherever I have gone whether 
any proprietors actually resided upon their estates, 
and devoted their time to the improvement and 
happiness of the slaves, but have heard scarcely 
of one. I have asked an individual who knows 
this country well to point out to me the pro- 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



169 



prietors whom he considered exceptions to the 
above description. The only individuals on whom 
he fixed were Count Woronzow, who has not 
yet been able to reside upon his estates, and 
Col. Poniatowsky, and a few foreigners settled in 
the country. He was forced to admit that the 
improvement of the condition of the slaves entered 
into the consideration of very few. There is not 
a school at this place except among the J ews : none 
of the peasants can either read or write, except the 
intendants. At four years of age I was told the 
education of the children of the Jews commences, 
and in all the towns and villages the education of 
their children is conducted upon a regular system, 
and rabbins or schoolmasters are supported by 
a society established for that express purpose. 
Every Jew is at least able to read the Old 
Testament ; but forty millions of Christians in 
Russia, who have been baptised, are unable 
to read the Scriptures either of the Old or New 
Testament, and have no bibles if they could read ! 

On my arrival at Biala Cerkiew from St. Peters- 
burgh, 11th July, I received the following letter 
from an English gentleman who had been tra- 
velling in Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, for 
the purpose of acquiring knowledge and seeing 

Europe. He is the nephew of Lady , is about 

to enter the Church, and has a rectory awaiting 



170 



THE FIRST DATS OF 



him in Gloucestershire. He came to Taganrog 
when I was there, but I first became acquainted 
with him at Admiral Greig's, at Nicolaef, and 
afterwards saw him at Odessa. 

ft Vienna, June ilth. 
" Mr dear Sir, — When we parted at Odessa 
I said I would write you a line from Vienna, 
and though the time is somewhat Ions* a<K) I 
should be sorry not to fulfil my word. Myself, 
my courier, and the Count's fish arrived at 
BerdichefF without accident, though the weather 
was so cold that both my wine and my beef were 
reduced to ice. I stopped two or three days 
at several towns in Poland, in order to see the 
manners of the country, and more particularly of 
the Jews, their music, their marriages, the cir- 
cumcision, or, as my courier comically called it, 
' o sichristen die Jews.' I got through the rascals 
at RadzirillofF for sixteen roubles, which I was 
told afterwards was less than most people managed 
it for. At Olmiitz I fell in with Prince Fer- 
dinand of Austria, on his way back from Russia, 
after various upsets, as people usually meet with 
in Russia, which not even his royalty could pro- 
tect him from — I say this on the authority of his 
cook and courier, not having the honour of His 
Highness's acquaintance. I staid at Vienna for 
six weeks, and after being well entertained for 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



171 



that time, set out for that miserable country, Hun- 
gary ; a country with every production of nature, 
wines, grain, cattle, metals, &c, but without 
any earthly means of turning them to advantage. 
Austria discourages them, and their other neigh- 
bours, the Russians and Turks, are of little use to 
them : they are just stuck between the frying-pan 
and the fire. I am now returned to Vienna ; 
and to-morrow start for the Tyrol, and then to 
Munich. When I left Odessa you intended to 
visit the Empress at Taganrog. I have since 
heard that she is dead. Of course the Russian 
doctors say that you poisoned her. At all events 
get away as fast as you can to some country 
where good intentions and labours are better 
rewarded. 

it And believe me, your's sincerely, 

" _ 

"P.S. If you should send me a line direct to 
Yienna, where I return at the end of August. I 
wish to know two things which I forgot to inquire 
when I was in the Crimea ; whether it was owing 
to the stupidity of the Tartar or Russian Govern- 
ment that they have no boats ; and whether there 
is any difference between the religion of the 
Tartar Jews and the other Jews. I suppose 
certainly not ; but some one asserted to me the 
other day that there was. Tell me any news you 



172 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



know from St. Petersburg!! or Moscow. What 
is to become of all the state prisoners ?" 

The following was my reply : 

Biala Cerkiew, 1st August, O.S., 1826. 

Dear -Sir, — On arriving here from Peters- 
burgh, about three weeks ago, it gave me great 
pleasure to receive your letter of the 11th June, 
and to be assured that your own health and that 
of your courier, had not suffered by the cold and 
fatigue of the long journey from Odessa to 
Vienna. I am sorry that my information respec- 
ting the black Jews is so imperfect, but such 
as it is I shall state to you. Their Bible is the 
same as that of the common Jews, but the Ka- 
raites reject entirely the Talmucls, and they have 
different forms of prayer. At what period they 
separated from the common mass of Israelites is 
not clearly ascertained, but it must have been 
many centuries ago. In consequence of their 
long residence among the Tartars, they have 
contracted many of the habits of Eastern nations, 
and particularly that of making their women live 
in a state of seclusion. A work I understand has 
been published on this sect in Russia, a copy of 
which a friend promised to send to me from 
Odessa, but it has not yet arrived. I shall endea- 
vour to procure it when I go there t wo weeks hence, 
and if there is any interesting information in it, I 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



173 



shall not fail to take extracts of it, and transmit 
them to you. The town which they occupy in the 
Crimea was a Genoese fortress, and when these 
were driven from it by the Tartars they ceded 
the town to these Jews, whom they found very 
useful in managing their commerce. When in 
the Crimea, I had expressed to Count Woron- 
zow my astonishment that the Tartars on the 
coast should not betake themselves to fishing, as 
a means of supplying what nature had denied to 
them, a supply of animal food. The Government, 
I understood, had neither encouraged nor pre- 
vented them from establishing fisheries, but it 
was said that the quarantine laws, which forbid 
all boats going more than a verst from the land, 
without a police officer or guard on board, had a 
bad effect in checking them. I recollect an obser- 
vation made one day at dinner by some one 
bearing on this point. It was, " We have been 
compelled to violate the quarantine laws, in order 
to have a supply of fish for our table to-day." 
These laws might prevent the establishment of 
great fisheries certainly, yet I think we are to 
attribute much to the natural apathy of the 
Tartar, and his dislike for maritime affairs. The 
Greeks at Balaclava and Kerche, have great 
fisheries, though equally under the influence of 
these laws, by which they supply not only their 



174 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



own families, but the interior of the country. In 
the first volume of Dr. Clarke's Travels there are 
some observations worthy of attention respecting 
the Karaites. He found some very ancient MSS. 
of the Bible at Kehufut Kali, which he says had 
been brought from the East. I have just been in- 
formed that all these MSS. are written by Polish 
Jews, but I do not know if this is a fact, as I 
suppose all these Bibles and books are printed 
and not written (I bought a MSS. copy of the 
Koran in the Crimea, and was told a printed 
copy did not exist). I have some little doubt also 
as to their Bible being the same as that of the 
others, but I have no means at present of 
resolving this doubt.* 

* 26 August. — I went into a Jewish Synagogue here, to wit. 
ness the performance of [the rite of circumcision, and found the 
house crowded with Jews. Each had a small box upon his fore- 
head, containing the Ten Commandments, and this was attached 
to his left wrist by a leathern cord, as I once saw in the case of a 
Turk travelling from Lyons to Marseilles. In reading the prayer, 
the head was covered usually with a thin cloth with broad black 
stripes. This they called a Talus. Their Bible began as ours 
with the five books of Moses, and ended with Ezekiel. The 
minor prophets were not admitted into their canonical books. 
The child was brought in upon a pillow bent on each side, and 
fixed in this like a cradle. There were three priests who took 
part in the ceremony; the eldest, a venerable-looking man, with 
a long white beard, sat down on a chair, and took the child on 
his knees ; a second rabbin applied a bandage round the thighs. 
The operation was performed with a short razor, which was 
put into his hand by the third priest, after all the relations of 
the child had touched its handle. The priest then took the 



THE EMPEKOH NICHOLAS. 



175 



In consequence of some disinclination on the 
part of Her Imperial Majesty's physician, my 
visit to Taganrog did not take place as I expected 
when I saw you; but was deferred until Her 
Majesty should have arrived at Kalonga, where 
she was to have resided, and where I was to have 
gone in returning to the South. Her death at 
Bieleff deranged the whole scheme, and saved 
me from the blame I should probably have incur- 
red from the generous and enlightened individuals 
around her, for at least hastening her dissolution. 
It was disease of the heart, but its nature was 
unknown till after her death. I left Odessa 
about the end of March, and proceeded after 
a short halt at this place, which is about eighty 

razor in L his right hand, and after other means had been 
employed, made the necessary incision. The third priest im- 
mediately applied his mouth to the wound, and sucked the 
blood for a short time, and then dashed all over the parts a 
large handful of finely powdered oak bark. The child was then 
covered as before with the clothes, and was removed to the 
side of a huge ark or chest, with curtains before it, before which 
the priest recited some prayers, and then gave the name to the 
child, putting some lipoid to its forehead. It was stated that 
the Karaite Jews admit only the- five Books of Moses. All the 
others they entirely reject. This was the whole of the ceremony. 
I was told that if a child dies before the eighth day, it is considered 
as a great calamity. In the church-yard before placing it in the 
grave, the operation is done, but with a piece of glass. Circum- 
cision is always performed among the Jews on the eighth day, 
whereas with ILahommedans it is often not done till a later 
period, fourteen or even sixteen years. The mother and female 
relatives were in an apartment adjoining during the ceremony. 



176 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



versts S. W. of Kief, with the Count to St. Peters- 
burgh. The snow was in the act of dissolving, so 
that we had the most formidable journey I have 
yet made in this detestable country. TVe pro- 
ceeded by Kief to Petersburgh, through the 
Western Governments. I saw nothing which 
deserved observation. Miser e, troisfois misery but 
above all, this was apparent in the provinces which 
once appertained to free and independent Poland. 
At St. Petersburgh I spent my time agreeably and 
usefully in visiting the hospitals, churches, palaces 
and institutions of all sorts. I arrived there when 
the fine weather be^an, and nothing could exceed 
the richness of the vegetation, which all at once 
succeeded to the severity of the long winter. In 
the public papers you will see what has been the 
fate of the individuals implicated in the late 
conspiracy: five hanged — 120 degraded and sent 
for life to work in the mines of Siberia, the rest 
to remain a certain time in the fortress, or to be 
sent into remote garrisons for years. It is pos- 
sible that the punishment may be mitigated after 
the coronation. The murderers of the Emperor's 
father were treated more mercifully than these 
unfortunate men, a few of whom undoubtedly 
had the welfare of their country honestly at 
heart. Upon the whole, St. Petersburgh has not 
left any very favourable impression on my mind. 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 177 

It was dull in the highest degree: this was no 
doubt partly owing to the peculiar circumstances 
of the times, there being few families who were 
not more or less interested in the proceed- 
ings of the commission which was then sit- 
ting. I was much more pleased with Moscow r , 
which I visited on my way to this place. The 
view of the city from the tower of Ivan Veliki, 
is one which it is impossible ever to forget, and 
I can imagine now that I hear the sound of all 
the bells of Moscow, as I heard them on a 
beautiful calm summer evening of a holyday, 
from the heights near the Dievitchi Monastery. 
My opinion of this country is not changed ; on 
the contrary, it is gradually becoming more and 
more unfavourable, and you may be assured 
that I will not fail to follow your kind advice 
as soon as I possibly can. Indeed, there is no 
doubt now that the Count TVoronzow will 
proceed to England about the beginning of 
October, if the affairs of Turkey are satisfactorily 
arranged at Akenran w r ith the Turkish Com- 
missioners by that time, and it is extremely 
probable that we shall be at Vienna before the 
end of October, and in England soon after. Is 
there no hope of our meeting you in crossing 
Germany? If there is not, I hope to have the 
pleasure of seeing you on your arrival in London 

N 



178 THE FIRST DAYS OF 

after you have finished your travels, when yon 
shall have bid adieu to this vagabond life, and 
entered upon the noblest duty of which we are 
capable in this world, that of consoling and 
instructing the poor and afflicted. If you should 
not be likely to fall in with us on our journey to 
England? I should be happy to hear from you 
before you quit Vienna, and to learn some 
particulars of your excursion to the Tyrol and 
Bavaria. I have been obliged to remain here 
some time, in consequence of my professional 
services being required for the children of the 
County his eldest son being indisposed. I expect 
to be able to set out for Odessa in two weeks 
to join His Excellency, who is now at Akerman 
as one of the Russian Plenipotentiaries. 

I am, yours, &c. 



14th August. — A war has actually broken out 
between Russia and Persia. The dispute arose 
about the frontier line. The Persians commenced 
the war by passing this line, and attacking a 
Russian regiment and seizing all the baggage. 
Colonel Nicholas Rajewsky [now General Ra- 
jcwsky] sets out immediately for the Caucasus^ 
having obtained permission from the Emperor to 
go thither. General Yermoloff is looked up to 
by all the military men of Russia, and is con- 



THE EMPEKOE NICHOLAS. 



179 



sidered one of their best generals. 24 ? 000 soldiers 
have been sent to the Caucasus. 

18th. — The war against Persia is more serious 
than was supposed. The Persian army of 60,000 
men has entered the Russian provinces near Eri van, 
with the view of separating the provinces to the 
eastward, formerly conquered from Persia, from 
connexion with the Russians, and exciting the 
inhabitants to take part against the Russians. 
The troops are already marching towards the 
Caucasus, and it is expected that there will be a 
smart struggle, though there is no fear of the 
result being favourable to Russia, and of its 
ending in the extension of this already over ex- 
tended empire. All believe that General Yer- 
moloff, by his irritating conduct during the last 
ten years, has excited this war, that he might 
have an opportunity of displaying his great 
military talents. These are represented to be of 
the first order. He and Count Woronzow are 
considered the greatest military geniuses of this 
country. There were some English officers at 
one time to discipline the Persians, but they have 
all quitted the country. The Shah, who is repre- 
sented to be a most avaricious man, would not 
keep his engagements with them. The termina- 
tion of the conferences at Akerman has taken 
place. The demands of the Russian Government 

N 2 



180 



THE FIBST DAYS OF 



are not known, but the Turks have received until 
the 25tk September to consider them. They 
have been forwarded to Constantinople. Shoidd 
the Turks refuse to comply with these demands, 
war will be the consequence after all, and this 
appears by no means improbable, though it is more 
likely when the time has expired that the tej-ms 
will be accepted, and peace preserved. There 
can be no doubt that in Russia a love of military 
glory is the prevailing passion of the great majo- 
rity of the nobility. It is possible, therefore, 
that she may make still greater conquests, but 
nothing ever will be consolidated by the Russians. 
Such a band of unprincipled men would speedily 
disorganize the best established institutions. 

6th Sept. — The Russian Government professes 
to be ignorant of the true cause of the war with 
Persia, and unable to tell whether it has been 
commenced by the order of the Schah or not, or 
whether it is not merely an irruption of some 
bodies of brigands. Prince M enschikoff was most 
kindly treated by the Prince Royal of Persia. 
Satisfaction has been demanded for this insult of 
the Shah ; and, if this be not granted, hostilities 
will be immediately commenced against Persia. 

12th. Sunday. — Last evening I was introduced 
to Colonel Grabe, a military officer of reputation, 
a native of Courland ; tall, handsome, of a com- 
manding appearance, but with soft and polished 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



181 



manners, and a voice so agreeable, with, so great 
a fluency of expression, that, had he been in a 
free country, it was my conviction that he would 
have been distinguished for his eloquence. He 
was attached some years ago to the Embassy at 
Munich, entered the army afterwards, and dis- 
tinguished himself greatly in the war of 1812. 
He was esteemed very highly by the late Em- 
peror, but, from some dispute with a Russian 
general, an intrigue was formed against him, and 
he was some time in a state of exile at YaroslaflP. 
Known to be a man of high talent, and denounced 
by some of the conspirators, he was arrested and 
conveyed to the fortress at St. Petersburgh. He 
was examined by the Emperor, and declaring 
upon his honour that he did not belong to the 
plot, his sword was immediately restored to him. 
It appeared, however, that he was subsequently 
denounced by some person as having belonged to 
the first secret society formed in Russia in 1817, 
and he was again arrested and examined. He at 
once acknowledged that this was the case, but 
renewed the assertion, that he had nothing what- 
ever to do with the Pestel plot. For concealing 
the fact that he had belonged to the first society, 
he was sent to a fortress to undergo two months' 
imprisonment. These proceedings produced such 
an effect upon his wife, then enceinte, that a 



182 



THE FIRST BAYS OF 



dangerous accident soon occurred, and I saw her 
professionally in a hopeless condition. Here, I 
have witnessed^ in different families, the dreadful 
evils resulting from political revolutionary schemes 
to private families and individuals* 

9th October, Odessa. — Our departure for Eng- 
land is fixed for Thursday next. News of a 
considerable victory over the Persians, near 
Hanja, and the prospect of their complete route. 
They behaved in the most cowardly manner. It 
is clear that the present opportunity is a most 
favourable one to seize upon the whole country 
north of the Araxes, and that it will not be let slip 
by the Russians. Thus this already overgrown 
and unwieldy mass will be still further extended 
towards the East, and may give an impulse to the 
acquisition of still more important conquests in that 
direction. It is probably for the good of mankind 
that this should take place, and that the Mahom- 
medan governments, which hitherto have always 
been purely despotic, and which never have ad- 
mitted of even a moderate degree of civilization, 
should give place to a Christian government, 
which in its turn, with the advancement of know- 
ledge, will be compelled to rid itself of the gross 
ignorance, superstition, and tyranny, which now 
envelop the Russian Government. The Turkish 
Commissioners arrived here from Akerman to- 



THE EMPEEOR NICHOLAS. 183 



night. To-morrow they dine with Count Woron- 
zow, and a ball is to be given to them in the evening. 
Three Englishmen have also arrived here, General 
Whitehead, Mr. Grosvenor and Sir Charles Mallet. 
At dinner I met M. Castiglione of Milan, who has 
passed many years in Egypt, and who quits this 
to-morrow for Constantinople ; from thence he 
proceeds to Alexandria and then to Sennaar. He 
related much that was interesting respecting 
Egypt, its antiquities, religion, police, and the 
improvements introduced by the present Pasha 
under the influence of M. Drovett and the forty 
French officers employed in the service of the 
Pasha. 

11th. — This morning I was informed by Count 
Woronzow, that Ibrahim and Hadgi Effendi, the 
Turkish Commissioners, wished to consult me 
professionally respecting some complaints to 
which they are subject. The eldest, Hadgi, aged 
66 or more, immediately on my entering the 
apartment stretched out his arm that I might 
feel his pulse. I did so, and found it 78, upon 
which I told him he had no febrile disease. He 
was suffering from dyspepsia, the consequence of 
the abuse of opium, coffee, and tobacco, and wine, 
&c. in private, if the report of the dragoman was 
to be believed. He admitted that he drank ten 
cups of coffee every day. When abstinence was 



184 



THE FIRST DATS OF 



recommended of every kind, the other plenipoten- 
tiary laughed aloud, and said it was impossible 
Hadgi could comply with my advice. He enquired 
if I had studied anatomy, and when he found I 
had, and that I considered it to be the basis of 
all medical science, and that I never allowed an 
opportunity to pass without making post-mortem 
examinations to discover the seat and nature of 
disease, Hadgi said it was very good practice 
indeed. He enquired if I took notes of my cases. 
I answered, that I took notes of all my cases, 
and of all passing events in Russia. We then 
adjourned to breakfast, the two plenipotentiaries, 
the two dragomans, and myself. The breakfast 
consisted of chicken, soup, eggs, and meat. They 
all drank English porter in considerable quanti- 
ties. After breakfast we all rose from table. A 
servant came and kneeled down, and presented to 
each ambassador a basin and decanter of water, 
and a towel, with which they washed their hands. 
When the operation was finished, the second 
plenipotentiary, Ibrahim, took me by the hand 
and led me into the sitting apartment, where a 
consultation was held respecting his own health. 
After this they went to the port, and embarked 
on board a steam-boat belonging to Admiral 
Greig, under a salute from a frigate in the roads 
and another small vessel. This was the first 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



]85 



occasion on which their Excellencies had ever 
been on board a steam vessel. They continued 
sailing about for an hour, and then returned. 
Ibrahim begged the dragoman to inform me, that 
he knew that the steam engine was invented by 
an Englishman, and that his name was Watt, 
In the evening they went to the opera, when La 
Cenerentola was played. They smoked in the 
middle of the opera, and seemed highly pleased. 
A Turkish translation of the opera had been pre- 
pared for them, which they held in their hands 
during the performance. 

The next morning I again visited their Excel- 
lencies, and had the honour of breakfasting with 
them. In the evening a ball was given by the 
Countess Woronzow on the occasion. They did 
not seem to enjoy it so much as they did the 
opera. Between the windows of the chief saloon 
was placed by the Russian Plenipotentiary a 
painting of Turkish trophies, surmounted by a 
crescent, in the middle of which, in Arabic, from 
the Koran, were the words — Peace is always more 
advantageous than war /* The ball was followed 

* On the 5th of April, 1826, a note was presented by M. de 
Minziaky at Constantinople to the Ottoman Government, com- 
plaining that the treaties between Russia and Turkey were 
violated by the Turks. These complaints referred especially to 
Moldavia and Wallachia, and Servia. The Turkish Government 
was accused, in an angry tone, as having violated the promises 



186 



THE FIRST DAYS OP 



by a supper, and the whole went off in the best 
possible manner. After midnight the Honour- 
able Mr. Grosvenor and Sir Charles Mallett 
arrived, and the former, a tall handsome young 
man in a hussar dress, soon joined in the dance. 
He was much admired by all the ladies. It ap- 
pears that war is eagerly desired by the mass of 
the people here, and particularly by the Greeks ; 
and in consequence of the pacific termination of 
the conferences of Akerman, Count Woronzow is 
become unpopular. The Countess Edlin, sister 
of M. Stourdza, I was told, would not come to 
the ball, because it was given to the Turks. 

akauS hiiB $L as&nisd aohhioo ig^jrfgifa sd$ 
made through Lord Strangford. M. Minziaky threatened to 
leave Constantinople in six weeks, and that war would imme- 
diately follow, unless Turkish Plenipotentiaries were sent to 
negotiate with Russian Commissioners in some town on the 
frontiers of Russia. Akerman was fixed upon for these confe- 
rences, and Count Woronzow and M. Ribeaupierre were the 
Russian Plenipotentiaries, and Baron Brunow was their secre- 
tary. The convention betweeen Russia and the Ottoman Porte, 
explanatory of the Treaty of Bucharest, was signed at Akerman, 
the 25th September (7th October), 1826. The questions dis- 
cussed were — 1, the restoration of certain Asiatic fortresses on 
the Black Sea ; 2, the free navigation of that sea by the Russian 
flag ; 3, the repayment to Russia of losses sustained by her 
subjects from the Barbary Corsairs, amounting, it was said, to a 
million sterling ; 4, the internal government of Moldavia and 
Wallachia. Turkey yielded to all the demands made upon her, 
however injurious to her interests. In 1828, Persia being crushed, 
Russia thought the text from the Koran might be conveniently 
altered into, " War is always more advantageous than peace," 
and war with Turkey followed accordingly. 



THE EMPEEQR NICHOLAS. 



187 



17th. — I leave Odessa, for the last time, with 
regret, having experienced invariably the greatest 
kindness from all with whom I have become 
acquainted, or with whom I have had any com- 
munication, professionally or otherwise. 

18th. Nicolaef. — "We remained here to dinner, 
and set out at nine at night, in the midst of a 
heavy rain and pitchy darkness. I learned that 
there were at this time fifteen sail of the line in 
the Black Sea, a large number of frigates, all 
manned and ready for active service. With such 
a fleet and army, and while the Ottoman Empire 
continues in such a state of decline, it is clear 
that the slightest collision between it and Russia 
might soon lead to its entire overthrow, and to 
the subversion of the present order of things in 
Europe. With the command of the Black Sea, 
Russia can always maintain an immense \ in- 
fluence over Persia; any number of troops 
being with facility, in eight or ten days, trans- 
ported from the Crimea to the Caucasus. Many 
young Russian officers now express an earnest 
desire for the complete conquest of Persia; and 
it is obvious that this would not be accompanied 
with much difficulty. 

2nd November. Biala Cerkiew. — To-morrow 
morning, at 6 a.m., we set out for England. The 
roads, in consequence of the rain, sleet, and snow 



188 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



that had fallen, were almost impassable from the 
depth of the mud. The following day this was 
converted by the frost into a solid mass. We 
reached Berdichieff, 160 versts from Biala Cer- 
kiew, late in the evening, without any other 
accident than the breaking of one of the springs 
of our caleche. 

At Squira, 21J versts from Biala Cerkiew, we 
found a regiment of hussars. The face of the 
country, peasants, and roads to Berdichieff and 
Radzivilloff, continued the same as in the govern- 
ment of Kief. The land in general is naturally 
rich in an extraordinary degree in all parts : I was 
told everywhere capable of yielding eight or ten 
for one. Berdichieff is a large town, where the 
population, consisting chiefly of Jews, appear 
more active and in better circumstances than in 
many towns in the south of Russia. From thence 
to Zytomir is two posts, where we spent the 
second night. This is a district town, but much 
inferior in size to Berdichieff, though paved, and 
containing many respectable houses. I was in- 
formed here that every male Jew pays annually 
10 roubles to the Russian Government. Every 
man who has a house, besides this poll tax, must 
pay taxes for mending roads, and other im- 
posts, to the amount of 25 roubles a year. Be- 
sides, every house is valued, and for this value a 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



189 



certain per-centage is required. Russians pay 
tlie same as the Jews. Where recruits are 
taken, the Jews then pay a certain sum for this ; 
the sum is 3 roubles each Jew. In this town the 
poll tax is paid in the following manner : — A rich 
J ew furnishes all the meat, &c, at a certain price, 
fixed at the beginning of each year, and all the 
Jews are obliged to buy from him; and he for 
this privilege pays the poll tax for each individual 
to the Government. Thus the poor, who are not 
in a condition to pay, have the tax discharged by 
their richer brethren. Such was the account I 
received. In the cabins of the peasants in this 
country, and in the Ukraine, there is little or no 
furniture ; no chairs ; but instead, there is a 
bench of wood round the walls of the house. On 
the stove there is a smooth place on which they 
sleep during the winter ; and from this to the 
opposite wall a platform is formed of deals, on 
which the family generally pass the night. No 
bed-clothes; no sheets nor pillows. Some of the 
rich have pillows, but no sheets ; they lie upon 
and cover themselves with their shoobs, which 
are made of sheep-skins. The houses generally 
are well heated. On the Steppe they burn 
borean, or common weed ; where there are no 
weeds nor wood, they burn straw, or cakes of 
cow's dung. In regard to their habits and food; 



190 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



they all rise early , and all wash their hands and 
faces, and then turn to their pictures or images 
and say their prayers in a low voice. They all 
sleep with their clothes on; all change their 
shirts once a week; and in Russia Proper the 
bath is common. The diet of the peasants of the 
Ukraine is good. The breakfast consists of salted 
cucumber, and anything which has remained over 
from the day before ; if there is nothing, bread 
and cucumber compose the breakfast, and in sum- 
mer it consist s of fruit. The dinner is composed of 
millet made into gruel, into which is put during 
their fasts hemp oil. On other days pieces of 
the fat of bacon are mixed in it, and it is then 
considered an excellent dish. Rye bread is used 
in great quantities; during some holydays wheaten 
bread. Previous to a fast, great exertions are 
made to buy a pig to make a luxurious meal 
before the time of privation commences. The 
same effort is made when the fast is concluded. 
Dried fish from the Don is much used, and great 
quantities are obtained from the rivers and lakes 
of the country. Potatoes are cultivated by some 
of the peasants of the Ukraine, but they are con- 
fined to their gardens ; and during all the diffe- 
rent journeys that I have made in the south of 
Russia, I have never seen the potatoe cultivated 
in the field. In fact, this plant does not form an 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 191 

article of food. The turnip Is nearly unknown 
in all parts of the Russian Empire. Artificial 
grasses are equally rare. 

5th. — In the evening we reached Novograd 
Wolinsky, in Volhynia, a district Polish town, 
but one of the most miserable I ever visited. 
We travelled during the whole of the night and 
following day, and arrived at Doubno on the 
evening of the 6th, where all dined, and set 
forward to RadzivilofF, near the Austrian fron- 
tier, which we reached at one o'clock in the 
morning. I was informed that Doubno was once 
a flourishing town. The Government contracts 
were once held here, and the circumstance, if 
truly stated, which led to their removal to Kief, 
is worthy of notice. This town belongs to the 
Prince Lubomirsky, who derived a great revenue 
from the contracts. The Emperor Paul knowing 
this, wished to purchase the estate; but the 
Prince refused to sell it, stating as a reason that 
he derived a great revenue from his possessions. 
Paul said, if you do not sell it, I will cut off this 
revenue from you, and immediately ordered the 
contracts to be held at Kief, a Government town. 
Doubno is now in a state of misery, of which it 
is difficult to form an idea : a wretchedly poor 
population ; the houses being generally half 
unroofed. 



192 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



7—19. Austria.— We left Brody at 6 a.m.— 
We had no sooner quitted this town than we 
entered upon an excellent chaussee of moderate 
breadth, Macadamized, and equal in all respects 
to many of the best roads in England ; such a 
road as I had not seen in any part of the Russian 
empire which I had traversed. Nothing could be 
more striking than the change we immediately 
perceived on entering the Austrian territory. 
The villages along the road-side bore an aspect 
of prosperity and cleanliness, which did not exist 
even in the most flourishing; towns and villages of 
Volhynia, Podolia, and the Ukraine. The agri- 
culture appeared to be far superior to anything 
seen in Russia, the fields being carefully ploughed, 
and in many parts manure applied as in the best 
agricultural districts of England. The people 
had an appearance of comparative ease and con- 
tentment. As we passed along the road we mef 
numbers of large wagons, drawn by eight or more 
horses, carrying merchandise of different sorts 
from Vienna to Brody ; and one of the circum- 
stances marking the difference between even these 
two most despotic governments of Europe, w T as 
the sudden, almost total, disappearance of military 
uniforms, of guns and bayonets. The peasants 
of Gallicia are still attached to the soil, and may 
be transferred along with it from one proprietor 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 193 



to another; but these sales are regulated by the 
extent of the land, and not by the number of 
human [immortal] souls existing upon the estates. 
In Russia, the value of an estate is estimated ac- 
cording to the number of peasants belonging to 
the land ; and accordingly the Russian nobility 
talk of the value of souls, not of their acres of 
ground, as in all other Christian countries, 
Combien d'dmes? is the common question when 
inquiring as to the value of an estate. The 
Austrian Government does everything which is 
possible to protect the peasants from all injurious 
or unjust treatment on the part of their lords. 
Nothing can be more certain than the fact, that 
the Austrian part of Poland has made rapid pro- 
gress in improvement since the partition, while 
the Russian part has been stationary, if it has not 
actually retrograded, and become more poor and 
debased since that event. 

We reached Lembevg late in the evening. We 
found the Count Araktcheieff in the same hotel, but he 
had retired to rest before our arrival, at least he 
pretended to be in bed, and the Count Woronzovo 
and he did not see each other.* 

* Count Araktcheieff, the Grand Vizier, "the peerless servant," 
or evil genius of the Emperor Alexander, had left St. Petors- 
burgh in June, having obtained leave to travel from Nicholas, 
with a gratuity of 50,000 roubles. In March, 1827, it is stated 

O 



194 THE FIRST DAYS OF 

We set out after supper from Lemberg, and 
travelled all the night and following day, and the 
evening of the 8 th slept at Jaroslaw, two posts 
from Lancut. 

9th. Lancut. — This is a handsome chateau 
belonging to Count A. Potocki. The proprietor 
is said to have a decided taste for English man- 
ners, agriculture, &c. The park and gardens 
were all laid out in the English style, but the 
weather being very cold, and the ground partially 
covered with snow, I did not see them. The 
chateau was of a quadrangular form, with a square 
in the centre, like Holyrood-house. There were 
many pictures, but few of much value. The ladies 
were all indisposed, so that at dinner no female 
appeared except the governess of the children. 
There were several Polish Counts present, and a! 
number of gentlemen whose rank and names I 
did not know. A custom prevailed here which I 
had nowhere observed in the whole course of my 



by a recent German writer, that a revision of the horrible pro- 
ceedings, which took place at Grousino, connected with the 
murder of Araktcheieff 's mistress, was ordered by Nicholas. " On 
crossing the French frontier AraktckeiefTs insolence drew upon 
him a reprimand from one of the employed of the Custom 
House, and caused Charles X to refuse him an audience, in a 
r ew months he returned to Russia, and resigned himself to his 
fate not without baaejag it to be understood that he possessed 

[he means of avenging his disgrace, by publishing the letters 

which he had received from Alexander. 



THE EMPEROK NICHOLAS. 195 



travels, and formed no part of English manners. 
At the foot of the table wine only was allowed 
to circulate of the most common quality, and 
when dinner was over, glasses with water for the 
fingers, &c, were brought to those at the top of 
the table, while all who had the misfortune to be 
at the opposite extremity were obliged to quit the 
table with unwashed hands. 

10th. — At dinner there was the same distinc- 
tion of persons and wines. I learned from a 
Polish Count that the taxes were paid to the 
Government according to the value of the estates, 
or the rent actually received by the landlord. 
He said it was agreed by all that the imposts were 
most oppressive. A proprietor with a revenue of 
400 ducats a year is compelled to pay at least 
250 for taxes. The officers of the Government 
were all Germans. No Poles were employed 
in official situations, and all the Polish regiments 
were sent to Hungary, Italy, Bohemia, and other 
distant provinces, while their place was supplied 
by German troops. The Polish nobility, I was 
informed, were not forced to serve in the armv 
unless they chose. The German language was 
employed in ail the legal proceedings, and even 
in common conversation it was rapidly supplant- 
ing the Polish, and he thought would before long 
extinguish it altogether. 

O 2 



196 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



The climate of Gallieia lie represented to be 
almost the same as that of the Ukraine, extremely 
cold in winter and hot in summer. The produc- 
tions of the soil nearly the same. The wheat pro- 
duced in Gallieia was chiefly transported, he 
said, by the Vistula to Dantzic ; large navigable 
branches of this river intersecting the whole 
country. The peasants, he saicF, were greatly 
addicted to drunkenness, as in the Ukraine, and 
not much better educated. Schools had formerly 
been established for their instruction, but during 
the last few years they had been wholly sup- 
pressed, as I told him they had been in Russia. 
The Austrian Government, he said further, had 
taken most effectual means to prevent all unjust 
and tyrannical treatment of the peasants by their 
masters. The whip was here unknown as a 
stimulus to labour. If a peasant was guilty of bad 
conduct, the master could not punish him himself. 
The culprit must be taken before an officer of the 
Government, whose duty it was to judge of the 
nature of the offence, and to award the punish- 
ment. I did not learn whether any systematic 
plan had been adopted for the emancipation of the 
slaves by the Austrian Government. In one vil- 
lage between Lemberor and Lancut we had found 
a regiment which had been stationed eleven years. 
In Russia changes were much more frequent, to 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 197 



prevent the soldiers from becoming too intimately 
acquainted with the peasants. 

11th. — At dinner a princess inquired seriously 
whether the water of the Black Sea was actually 
of a blacker colour than the water of all other 
seas, and if it was possible to get to Odessa by 
sea except through the straits of Constantinople, 
and if Odessa was the name of a Greek town. 
Enquiries were also made about the fishes taken 
out of the Black Sea, and about the truth of the 
report fully credited by the Cossacks of the Don, 
that there is a race of horses of peculiar excellence, 
which take their origin from the Black Sea. A 
distinguished Cossack general at Taganrog, I told 
the princess, had certainly assured Baron Brunow 
that there could be no doubt of this, that there 
were horses in the Black Sea, for a gentleman 
worthy of all credit had assured him of the fact, 
which he fully believed. 

We reached Vienna on the 21st. Respecting 
the country between Lancut and Vienna, I made 
few observations. At Bieltzy, a large town on 
the frontiers of Gallicia and Silesia, there were 
extensive manufactures of cloth, and every sign 
of an active thriving population. The German 
language, dress, &c, prevailed at this town, and 
it was here we lost sight, at the same time, of 
the Polish Jew and slave. The women of the 



198 THE FIRST DAYS OF 

lower classes all wore red stockings, with petti- 
coats hardly reaching the knees. The men had 
large round hats with broad brims, blue jackets, 
with rows of metal buttons. Booths or stalls of 
wood were arranged in the market-place for a 
fair to be held here. In the great square was 
the public market, and it was crowded during 
the day with buyers and sellers of all descrip- 
tions. At Techen, another considerable Silesian 
town, we arrived on the day of a great fair. 
Hats, clothes, pictures, books, &c, were exposed 
for sale, and the people, men and women, from 
the country, were engaged in buying them. The 
women wore red stockings, short petticoats with 
a border, and a jacket of leather of a buff colour, 
with the wool remaining on the inside, and ap- 
plied to their bodies. These jackets were trussed 
up behind, so as to form a great projection like 
a basket across the back. Over this was thrown 
a great white coarse linen sheet, which covered 
also the head, and was brought under the chin. 
They were healthy, cheerful, and apparently in 
easy circumstances, but few of them were good- 
looking, and almost all of them of a small stature. 
We proceeded by the ordinary route of Olmlitz 
and Briinn to Vienna. Most of the Silesian 
towns were entirely built in the form of regular 
quadrangles, and had arcades similar to those in 



THE EMPEKOR NICHOLAS. 199 



Italy, under which the different wares were ex- 
posed for sale. In passing through Olmiitz, a 
place very strongly fortified, I went to see the 
theatre. The play on the evening before our 
arrival was King Lear. In the saloon I saw 
several English prints ; one of Lavinia and her 
mother, from Thomson's Seasons. Another of 
Auld Robin Gray and Jenny, with the following 
lines underneath : — 

" The summer it was smiling, all nature round was gay, 
When Jenny was attending on auld Eobin Gray, 
For he was sick at heart, and had no friend beside 
But only me, poor Jenny, who newly was his bride. 
Jenny ! I shall die, he said, as sure as I have breath, 
Then see my poor old bones, I pray, laid into the earth." 

Nothing could surpass in beauty the country 
from Briinn to Vienna, particularly from Nicols- 
bourg. There was a broad valley skirted to 
the north and south by picturesque ranges of 
low mountains covered with vines. The valley 
itself was chiefly occupied with corn. The country 
was populous. At the distance of every two or 
three miles on the slopes and in this valley, were 
large wealthy villages, each with a church and 
spire. The crowds of heavy laden wagons con- 
tinued all the way to Vienna. Everywhere from 
Bielitz to Vienna, and on almost every bridge 
was a statue of one or more of the apostles, or 



200 



THE FIRST DATS OF 



some sturdy Roman Catholic priest. Everything 
gave proof that I was in a Catholic and bigoted 
country, not excepting the swarms of beggars 
who are usually found in countries similarly 
situated. The approach to Vienna from Moravia 
presented nothing striking. 

22 — 4th Dec. Vienna, Hotel of the Empress 
of Austria. — This morning I visited the manufac- 
tory of porcelain. It presented nothing equal to 
the porcelain made at Paris; indeed it did not 
appear in a high state of perfection. There were 
several mirrors exhibited, each of which was valued 
at 1000 florins en argent. From this I went to 
the gallery of Prince Lichtenstein, where there 
were 17 pictures by Guido, 13 by Salvator Rosa, 
6 great paintings by Rubens of the Roman consul 
Decius, and paintings by him altogether amount- 
ing to 36 ; 34 by Van Dyke, 2 by Raphael, 
Michael Angelo 2, Rembrandt 7, Titian 4, Andrea 
del Sarto and Paul Veronese 5. The length of 
the great saloon was 78 feet, the breadth 66, and 
the height was represented to be equal to the 
length. The paintings on the ceiling above the 
cornices represented the labours of Hercules, 
those on the ceiling Olympus. These were exe- 
cuted by Pozzo, an Italian painter, and the saloon 
itself by Martinelli of Bologna. The propor- 
tions were beautiful. The staircase was of great 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



201 



breadth, and was formed of marble from the 
mountains near Saltzbourg. Each step, at least 
twelve feet or more in length, was composed of a 
single block of marble. The balustrade, which 
was also of marble, was massive. 

I then proceeded to the arsenal. Here was 
collected a great variety of ancient and modern 
arms. The whole had been arranged by Prince 
Lichtenstein. The coats of mail worn by all 
the kings of Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary ; 
guns, sabres, pistols, trophies taken from the 
Turks, Swedes, Spaniards, and French. The 
bonnet of Godfrey of Boulogne, the coat and 
dress of Prince Eugene, and the chamois coat of 
Gustavus Adolphus were seen. In one of the 
halls was the Austrian Eagle, of great size, 
formed of the blades of sabres ; in another, the 
arms of Bohemia. Around the courtyard of the 
building was a vast collection of cannon, mortars, 
&c, taken from different nations. On the wall 
was suspended an iron chain which the Turks 
placed across the Danube to intercept the naviga- 
tion, and which was used for the same purpose 
by Bonaparte without success. The Archduke 
Charles had heavy barges constructed, which he 
caused to be floated down the river, and which 
broke it in pieces. In viewing this assemblage 
of weapons for the destruction of human beings, 



202 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



I could not help thinking of my countrymen 
Howard and Jenner, and their philanthropic 
labours. 

In the evening I accompanied Count Woron- 
zow to dinner at M. TatischefTs, the Russian 
Ambassador. There were present Prince Metter- 
nich ? Sir H. Wellesley, and others attached to 
the Russian, Austrian, and English Courts. I 
was introduced to Prince Metternich as an Eng- 
lish physician, and was delighted with his affa- 
bility and politeness. After dinner he came up 
to me, and said, " I will obtain for you admission 
into the Josephine Academy, and I hope you 
will dine with me to-morrow." I accepted the 
invitation. During dinner he did not talk much. 
He stated the fact that many of the words in the 
different European languages were derived from 
the Persian, and gave some examples where this 
was the case in regard to the German. Numbers 
of people came in after dinner, none of whom I 
knew. 

5th. Friday. — I visited tfiis morning the Impe- 
rial Library. There were 800 volumes of prints, 
13,000 volumes of manuscripts. A part of the 
library had belonged to Prince Eugene. The 
paintings on the ceilings were the work of Daniel 
Gran. The sciences and arts were represented, 
and Mount Olympus on the highest part. This 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 203 



was 92 feet in height, and 246 in length. The 
plan of the library was given by Fisher of Erlach. 
In a room adjoining the library were preserved 
the different manuscripts. Upon a plate of cop- 
per was an edict published at Rome 186 years 
before Christ, by which the celebration of the 
rites of Bacchus were prohibited except in private 
families. Here also we saw the poem of Tassds 
Jerusalemme Conquestata in his own handwriting. 
There was a manuscript about the beginning of 
the eighth century in the Lombard characters, 
relating to a grant of land in the neighbour- 
hood of Ravenna, which was first decyphered by 
Mabillon. It was on a piece of papyrus, and was 
the only MS. existing in this character. 

After the library we visited Prince Ester- 
hazy's Gallery; in which collection were two 
paintings by Salvator Rosa, two by Titian, a 
large and very beautiful picture by Rembrandt 
representing Christ before the judgment seat of 
Pilate ; several by Cuyp ; a few by Vandyke ; 
some by Rubens; and several by Murillo and 
Velasquez. 

At 5 I went to dine with the Prince Metter- 
nich. His house adjoining the Palace was richly 
furnished. There were present the English, 
French, and Russian Ambassadors, the Count 
and Countess Woronzow, Lady Georgiana Welles- 



204 



THE FIRST DATS OF 



ley, and a number of other persons of distinction, 
about twenty in all. The liveries of the servants 
extremely rich. TTe were seated around a large 
circular table : I was placed on the left hand of 
Count Carainan, the French Ambassador. His 
Excellency made numerous enquiries respecting 
the Crimea and Odessa. He was acquainted, he 
said, through his intimate friend the Duke de 
Richelieu, with the corrupt condition of the civil 
administration of Russia, and expressed strongly 
his opinion that it was impossible that any improve- 
ment could take place in it while the Government 
did not take up the business. He agreed that 
there was a spirit of a bad nature in the Russian 
army, a malaise which led everv officer to think of 
conquest and plunder, no matter whether the 
cause was just or not. Slavery the Count charac- 
terized in a proper manner, and said the peasants 
of Russia were endowed with many good quali- 
ties, but that what was termed the nobility was 
a corrupted mass. The conspirators he charac- 
terized as des miserable^ laches, and as destitute not 
only of principle, but of the smallest courage. 
M. de Caraman said that the Duke de Richelieu 
was affected in the deepest manner when he con- 
sidered the demoralizing effect of the present 
system in Russia, and remarked that he had no 
doubt Count Woronzow would in time become 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 205 



equally disgusted with the corrupt practices which 
he was compelled to witness, as Governor-General, 
without being able to redress them. He agreed 
that religion had a great influence on the lower 
classes in Russia in keeping them in subordina- 
tion, but that the higher classes were completely 
emancipated from its control, and from the influ- 
ence in general of common morality. The gentle- 
man on my left spoke much about the locusts, 
and of the great prosperity which Odessa would 
soon enjoy, if it were in fact a free port. The 
French Ambassador spoke of the Emperor 
Alexander, and inquired about the circumstances 
accompanying his death. He told me that he 
was at Verona with His Majesty, and had walked 
about for hours with him alone in the country 
around. His Majesty, the Count informed me, 
was then afflicted with an unaccountable gloom 
and melancholy, and believed that he was destined 
to be miserable and unfortunate. He conceived 
that this feeling, with the horrible attack medi- 
tated on his life, reduced him to a state of 
utter despair, and rendered him anxious not to 
live, and induced him to refuse all help. Sir 
James Wylie had informed me in the Crimea 
that so great was the Emperor's dread of assassi- 
nation by the Carbonari at Verona, that he durst 
not venture out into the street until they had 



206 



THE FIRST DAYS OF 



been inspected by guards sent out for that pur- 
pose, and that this dread even prevented his 
Majesty from going to Rome, which he had a 
great desire to visit. 

After dinner Prince Metternich showed to the 
company assembled, the print which had just 
then appeared in which Napoleon is represented 
taking leave of his friends at Fontainbleau. The 
Prince read the names of the different indivi- 
duals forming the group around Napoleon, and 
criticized the whole severely. He said it was 
a bad specimen of art, and that the portraits did 
not resemble the individuals meant to be repre- 
sented. In a few minutes the Prince went out 
of the drawing-rooms, and brought me the order 
to see the Josephine Academy, and presented it 
in the most affable manner. He began to say that 
the institution had been remodelled and much 
improved. Count Woronzow directed the con- 
versation to the subject of plague, and the Prince 
asked my opinion of its being contagious or not. 
I answered that I thought there could be no 
doubt of the fact of its being; contagious, and that 
almost all the most respectable and enlightened 
physicians of England were of the same opinion. 
He asked the reason why plague did not exist in 
Persia. I stated that the Turks were not only 
fatalists, which the Persians were not, but that 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS* 207 



,ne climate of Persia was too hot for the conta- 
gion to exist , and this led to an account of some 
diseases, such as typhus, where the contagion is 
extinguished by heat. The Prince then spoke 
of the fever that was prevailing at the time 
in Holland, and asked what it was. I said it was 
probably the bilious remittent fever, the same as 
the fever in the Crimea, of which the Emperor 
Alexander had died, or the Walcheren fever, and 
not contagious. Respecting cholera and yellow 
fever the Prince also made some enquiries, and 
when I stated the evidence cautiously against 
their being contagious, he seemed pleased. He 
then recommended me before quitting Vienna, 
to see the Veterinary College. The Prince then 
recurred once more to the subject of the plague, 
and said that a similar dispute had arisen among 
physicians here as in England, and that he had 
decided the question, by stating that he was not- 
capable of determining whether it was contagious 
or not, but that if Austria abolished her quaran- 
tine laws, she would be put in a state of quaran- 
tine by all the other countries of Europe, and 
this led him to decide that no change should 
take place. In the dining-room when the enter- 
tainment was nearly over, an organ began to 
play some beautiful airs. Prince Metternich 



208 



THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. 



appeared much thinner in the countenance and 
person, than he has usually been represented in 
prints. His manner was calm and dignified, his 
voice soft and clear. 

On the 7th of December, 1826, I set out for 
England, and arrived in London on the 6th of 
January, 1827. 



THE END OF THE DIARY. 



209 



Conclusion. 



It does not appear from the reports of those 
who have visited Russia since the year 1826, 
that any attempt has been made to improve the 
wretched condition of the slaves throughout the 
Russian Empire, nor to correct the abuses which 
then prevailed in every department of the Go- 
vernment. Since the suppression of the Bible 
Society, which was carried into effect while I 
was in St. Petersburgh, knowledge at every 
entrance has been excluded from the people. 
It is said that astronomy has been encouraged 
at Dorpat, and mineralogy at Moscow by two 
kisses imprinted upon the cheeks of an eminent 
English geologist. 

The consumption of human life during the reign 
of the Emperor Nicholas has been enormous. 
He has carried on war with the Circassians 
uninterruptedly for twenty-eight years, at an 
annual cost of 20^000 lives on the Russian side 
alone, making a grand total of nearly 600,000 
Russians who have perished in attempting to 
subdue the independence of Circassia. 

P 



210 



CONCLUSION. 



In the two campaigns against Persia, as in the 
Hungarian campaign and the two Polish cam- 
paigns of 1831-32, there are not sufficient data 
to enable me to form a correct estimate of the 
Russian loss, which was however in the Persian 
and Polish wars enormous. 

In the two campaigns against Turkey of 
1828-29, 300,000 fell, of whom, however, 50,000 
perished by the plague. 

The loss of the Russians, in various ways, since 
the entry of the Danubian Principalities is under- 
stated at 30,000. 

In these calculations it should be borne in mind 
that no estimate is attempted to be made of the 
sacrifice of human life on the side of those who 
fought for their liberties against the aggressions 
of Russia. If this calculation were attempted, 
it is probable that the result would prove that 
neither Julius Caesar, nor Alexander, nor even 
Tamerlane, has been a greater scourge to the 
human race than the present Emperor Nicholas. 

Savile Row, April 22, 1854. 

THE END. 



Printed l)y Harrison and Sons, London Gazette Ofliee, St. Martin's Lane. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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